Nuggets from the Urdu press

The Friday Times
Oct 25 - 31,  2002    -  Vol. XIV, No. 35

Teacher of Mulla Umar wins in Gujranwala!

Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt, Qazi Hamidullah of MMA who won the National Assembly seat from Gujranwala said that his pupil Maulana Mutiullah of Chaman was the tutor of Mulla Zaeef who was in turn the tutor of Mulla Umar of Afghanistan. He said Mulla Umar accepted him as his master and invited him many times to Kandahar. He said he was in close contact with Osama bin Laden who wore good perfume in the Arab tradition and was so delicate that he could melt in the sun. He said he ate only rice and daal as guest of the governor of Kandahar as a token of his austerity. He said he had won on the pledge that he would remove democracy from Pakistan because under democracy the vote of a fahisha (virtue-less woman) and a pious woman was treated as equal. He said the rulers first got the mujahideen to fight the jehad in Kashmir but when President Bush showed his shoe (jooti dikhai) they banned it. He said he had claim not on Kashmir but entire India. Qazi Hamidullah said the impression about Afghanistan was wrong. It was a prosperous country where no one paid taxes but received food at his door and shopkeepers could go away for namaz without locking up their shops. He said he taught at Madrasa Anwarul Ulum Sheranwala Bagh Gujranwala and at Madrasa Mazahirul Ulum Ferozwala Road Lahore.

12 billion lost on MMA victory

Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt, the victory of MMA brought the Karachi Stock Exchange down by 68 points, losing 12.50 billion rupees in a day. The Lahore market equally suffered lowering of shares of half the companies. The experts said that religious parties had won only 4 seats in the 201-seat house in 1997; this time they had got 60 seats already. This was a bad signal for international investors who will now stay away from Pakistan. The result was completely contrary to the expectations of the stock market experts. The rupee fell against the dollar by 10 paisa.

Taliban songs in Quetta

According to daily Pakistan, the supporters of MMA upon the victory of their party in Balochistan came out into the streets of Quetta and sang songs dedicated to the Taliban. They demanded that the MMA as the ruler of Balochistan should oust the Karzai government in Kabul and bring the Taliban back to power.

Cinemas blacken actresses

Reported in Nawa-e-Waqt, the leaders of MMA, including Qazi Hussain Ahmad, warned the cinemas in Peshawar that they would pay dearly if they showed obscene movies and put up indecent placards. The cinema immediately responded by taking down posters depicting heroines and on the hoardings and blacked out the sections containing the likeness of a woman. The paper reported that the cinema-goers of Peshawar were greatly disturbed by the coming change.

Al Qaeda is our brother!

Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt, leader of MMA and Jamaat Islami said that the members of Al Qaeda were ‘our brothers’ and we will not hand them over to the Americans. He said MMA would run the government on Islamic lines and not lines dictated by America.

MMA is divided over America!

Quoted in Khabrain, PML(N) leader Raja Zafrul Haq said that MMA was a divided religious alliance. He said some leaders of MMA were against the bases given to the United States on Pakistani soil while others had a soft corner (naram gosha) for these bases. He said the two cleric-dominated provinces will present a problem.

Taliban-minded agency acted for MMA!

Quoted in Khabrain MQM(A) leader Imran Farooq said that an intelligence agency of Pakistan with pro-Taliban sympathies interfered with the election results and caused the clerics to win. He said this intelligence agency was once involved in the Talibanisation of Pakistan and had many members in it who were actually of Taliban mind. He accused the government of withholding the results after the final counts had been done. He said in once case, that of Nasreen Jaleel of MQM, the governor Sindh himself rang to congratulate her after midnight, but in the morning Nasreen Jaleel had actually lost! A representative of MMA in Karachi was quoted by daily Pakistan as saying that the government prevented a landslide in favour of MMA by holding back results and helped MQM win more seats than they deserved. Quoted in daily Din, leader of Jamiat Ahle Hadith Sajid Mir said that General Musharraf rigged the elections in favour of MMA to produce a hung parliament. He said his party was made to lose. Ahle Hadith left MMA and joined PML(N) before the elections.