Lahore, Apr.27 (ANI): Just when it seemed that every thing was fine and troubles had died their natural death for the newly married Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik, he finds himself entangled in yet another controversy, as a local court here has summoned him for allegedly selling invitation cards of his reception party.
According to reports, a man named Safdar Ali has filed a petition alleging that Shoaib was selling invitation cards for his ‘walima’ to be held today (April 27) for 15,000 rupees each.
Ali’s petition has been accepted and enlisted for May 3 hearing. Additional Sessions Judge Malik Rafiq has also directed Shoaib to appear before the court on the said date of hearing.
Meanwhile, a man named Hasan Shahzad has moved to the Lahore High Court (LHC) alleging that Shoaib’s family has violated the government’s rule while organising a lavish reception party at Sialkot.
In his petition, Shahzad urged the court to take notice of the gross violation of rules and regulations set by the government.
The petition states that during the reception on Sunday (April 25), guests were served more than one-dish, which was against rule, The Daily Times reports.
The petitioner states that despite warnings from local electricity department, extravagant lighting decorations were made both at Shoaib’s house and at the reception venue.
Complete chaos and mismanagement were witnessed during the reception ceremony, which was organised at a hockey stadium, as more than 2000 people turned up for the function against the 1000 invitees.
In their bid to prevent ‘uninvited guests’, private security guards present outside the reception venue did not even allow some of Shoaib’s relatives and friends to enter the stadium, which gave way to a heated argument between both sides. The matter was resolved only after some other family members intervened. (ANI)
India’s Muslims denounce Taliban whipping of girl as un-Islamic
New Delhi, April 4 (IANS) After video clips of a 17-year-old girl being flogged in public by Taliban fighters in Pakistan’s Swat valley were shown on TV, India’s Islamic scholars denounced it as ‘un-Islamic’ and ‘satanic’ and condemned it as ‘gross violation’ of Quranic codes.
Renowned Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan spoke out strongly against the incident and added that if anything, the act was absolutely ‘un-Islamic – even satanic’.
‘This kind of treatment is neither Islamic nor human. In fact, not only is it un-Islamic and inhuman, but also satanic,’ Khan, who has authored over 200 books on Islam, told IANS.
‘The first thing that should be done is to educate people, develop ethical values, sensitivity towards women and treat them equally. Society can be reformed through education – punishment (of the perpetrators) can never be the starting point for any kind of reform or change,’ he added.
Similarly, Mushirul Hasan, vice chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia university, condemned the incident saying that it was a wrong portrayal of Islam, which preaches exactly opposite of what the Taliban were seen doing to the hapless young girl.
‘I am horrified. This (incident) is a gross violation of Islamic and Quranic injunctions which teaches humanity, love, peace and magnanimity,’ Hasan told IANS.
The dangers of imposing Sharia laws in Pakistan’s restive Swat Valley were brought into sharp focus Friday with the airing of a two-minute video showing a 17-year-old screaming, burqa-clad girl being whipped by Taliban fighters for coming ‘out of her house with another man who was not her husband’.
The grainy video, shot on a mobile phone, showed the girl face down on the ground. Two men held her arms and feet while a third, a black-turbaned man with a flowing beard, whipped her repeatedly.
Salima Khan, a student doing her PhD in Delhi University, said that she literally boiled in anger after seeing the video clip on YouTube, the popular video sharing website and then again on TV.
‘I can’t believe how anybody can humiliate and beat up an innocent young girl in the name of religion. And what was her fault – that she was seen with a man who was not her husband! Who in their right state of mind would ever dare to do such a dastardly act?
‘Such acts just show how Islam has been grossly misinterpreted by a handful of people who are using it as a tool to serve their own cause,’ Salima said angrily.
On YouTube, the video received thousands of hits overnight and a barrage of comments.
One of the comments read: ‘These people (Taliban) should be given a taste of their own medicine. They should be whipped in public for maligning the name of Islam and inflicting torture on poor, helpless women’.
Another comment from an Indian woman read: ‘Thank God I was born in India and not there (Swat valley). There they treat women like animals – no, even worse. To live a life like that seems like sheer hell.’
However, the authorities of Darul Uloom, one of the most renowned seminaries in the Deoband town of western Uttar Pradesh, chose to keep mum.
Maulana Abdul Khaleeq Madrasi, pro vice chancellor of the seminary, told IANS: ‘We cannot give any statement on the matter from the institution as we don’t know the details at the moment’.
India has an estimated 140 million Muslims, the third largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan.