Khatam-e-Nabuwat Conference: Ahmadis accused of working against Pakistan

Pakistan Punjab

Khatam-e-Nabuwat Conference: Ahmadis accused of working against Pakistan

By Shamsul Islam
Published: September 10, 2011

Three-day meeting ‘celebrates’ declaration of Ahmadis as minorities. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

MULTAN: “Ahmadis are part of a Jewish conspiracy against Islam and Pakistan and are responsible for sectarianism and terrorism in the country,” claimed religious leaders at the conclusion of a three-day-long Khatme Nabuwwat conference in Chiniot.

Over 450 processions and gatherings were organised in Punjab to mark the Khatme Nabuwat declaration by the Supreme Court that declared Ahmadis as ‘non-Muslims’ in 1974.

“The option available for Ahmadis is to accept Islam and abandon conspiracies against Muslims and Pakistan,” speakers at the conference said.

The government should keep a check on Ahmadis purchasing property in Pakistan, they suggested, stressing on “the need to declare Ahmadis as terrorists.”

Heralding the “sacrifices of the right-wing parties to define Islam and declare Ahmadis as minorities,” speakers at the conference vowed to “protect the religious identity of Pakistan in the world.”

In a “message” to the Ahmadis, the speakers said they should either “accept Islam” or their legal status as minorities in Pakistan and “obey” the constitution of Pakistan.

On an ending note, the speakers vowed to “continue [their] struggle against Ahmadis across the world.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10th, 2011.

Copyrighted © 2011 The Express Tribune News Network
URL: http://tribune.com.pk/story/249286/khatam-e-nabuwat...pakistan/

Changed music

Pakistan Punjab

Changed music

By Editorial
June 09, 2010

In the face of a barrage of criticism from many quarters, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has suddenly discovered that Ahmadis are equal citizens of Pakistan. Speaking recently in Lahore, he termed the community as ‘our brothers and sisters’ and asserted they should not be victimised.

Till now, the PML-N had taken a rather ambiguous position on the whole matter. It was under the government of Shahbaz Sharif that the town of Rabwah near Chiniot, with its population of around 70,000 consisting mainly of Ahmadis, was re-named Chenab Nagar against the wishes of the community. No attempt was made under the PML-N government to prevent speakers at religious gatherings – some of them held in the immediate vicinity of Rabwah – attacking the Ahmadis.

On the wider issue of extremism, while the PML-N has condemned terrorist attacks, it has been far more cautious in speaking out against the Taliban. Shahbaz Sharif’s curious labelling of the assertion that many such groups operated in the Punjab as an attack on Punjabis is another example of this ambiguity.

The evidence that the PML-N may be changing its tone is good news. There have been meetings on a possible operation in the southern Punjab. This is badly needed. We must hope the matter is taken beyond rhetoric and leads to change. While Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ranks as the province worst affected by militancy, the Punjab harbours a huge number of madrassas and has traditionally been all too hospitable to the sectarian groups that have sprung up in its towns. There is also another key difference. While the ANP, the party now in government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, has openly spoken against the militants, the two factions of the PML that have held power in the Punjab over the past decade have been reluctant to do so.

We must hope that the PML-N is willing to change its stance and this is followed through with consistency and does not change once the wave of pressure dissipates.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 9th, 2010.

URL: http://tribune.com.pk/story/19762/changed-music/