Politicians, kidnappersAccording to Khabrain, a Pakistani American, Mashood Babar Khan, returned to Lahore to invest in a factory. His American wife was abducted by one Saiful Malook Khokhar who was driving a pajero and whose brother is Malik Afzal Khokhar, a member of the Punjab Assembly. The police kept fighting over jurisdiction while Babar got to know from the registration of the pajero that the owners were locally powerful people who indulged in crime. The police still did nothing. He sent his wife and daughter back to America.
Jews are ‘kafir,’ Christians are ‘mushrik’
Reported in the daily Pakistan, Dr Shahid Masud went to residential Jamia al Muhsinaat and told them that they were extremists and easily apostatised others, to which they replied most effectively. They also told him that Jews were kafir because they denied Christ and Muhammad (pbuh), and that Christians were mushrik because they associated someone with Allah. Both would go to Hell, if Allah chose.
Why cut only one leg?
Writing in Khabrain, Abdus Salam Ghulam Muhammad stated that in Sahiwal, the leg of a woman was cut because she was guilty of zina (fornication). The writer criticised the newspaper for defending the girl and thought that she should have been killed for doing zina. He said that the woman should have been killed along with her lover as that would have been the Islamic way.
Sheikh Rashid versus Hameed Gul
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, federal information minister Sheikh Rashid visited the depot of Waran Bus Service, owned by ex-ISI chief Hameed Gul’s daughter Uzma Gul. The bus service had come under adverse treatment from the Rawalpindi Cantonment authority where it was located. Sheikh Rashid said that the land of the depot belonged to the cantonment and he planned to build a government-run school for the girls of the cantonment. Uzma Gul said that she would lodge a complaint against the minister at the police station.
Independence Day and dancing Pael
Column Sarerahe commented in the Nawa-e-Waqt that on an Independence Day function by the Bolan Cultural Society in Islamabad, Lahore-based dancer of great ill-repute Pael (bells worn at the ankle) performed in the most obscene (fohush) and naked (urian) way. The spirit of independence must have fled out of shame and the federal ministers who sat through the function must have looked confused (baghlain jhanknay lagay).
Namaz and corruption
Writing in the Jang, columnist Abdul Qadir Hassan stated that one corrupt civil servant who kept a flowing beard was called in for inquiry into his cases of bribe-taking. The bearded civil servant entered the room of the inquiry officer and spread out the janamaz which he had brought with him and started praying. The prayer lasted through the office timings. He did that three or four times till the inquiry officer acquitted him of all charges. It was commonly believed that no one should break the namaz of a fellow-Muslim. Some ticket-less traveller in the railways also took up namaz to avoid being checked for tickets. The trick always worked.
Life for writing ‘Shaitan Maulvi’
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, Muhammad Yunus Sheikh of Khara Dar Karachi wrote a book titled Shaitan Maulvi (Satanic Cleric), thinking that Pakistan had become liberal. But he was arrested and taken before an Anti-Terrorist Court which handed down a term of life imprisonment to him for spreading religious hatred. The author of the book contended that he had simply produced facts against the clergy but the judge would not listen. The writer of the book will also have to pay a fine of one lakh rupees, apart from rotting in jail for life. According to the daily Pakistan, the clergy had already declared him wajibul qatl (to be murdered). He was accused by them of writing against all the schools of jurisprudence and wrongly interpreting the Quran.
Deedat was great
Writing in Khabrain, Khalid Minhas stated that South African Muslim scholar, the late Sheikh Ahmad Deedat, was great because he rebutted the Christians and found fault with the Bible. He used to engage in debates with Christians and defeat them. After he defeated the Christian evangelist Swaggart, his entry was banned in France and Nigeria.