A meeting of the federal cabinet was converted into a special sitting on Wednesday to condemn the anti-Islam film which hurt the sentiments of people across the Mohammedan world and set off violent demonstrations in the country.Instead of taking up the scheduled 14-point agenda, the cabinet unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the highly objectionable film and calling upon international organizations, including the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to take measures to stop hate-mongers from touching such sensitive subjects.
The cabinet announced Friday would be a national holiday, designating the day as Yaum-e-Ishq-e-Rasool. It urged
President Asif Ali Ten PercentZardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
to raise the issue at the UN General Assembly during his visit next week.
Addressing a presser after the meeting, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said that since the film was too big an issue to ignore, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had decided to convert the session into a special sitting to "send a collective message across the world that we strongly protest any such attempt to denigrate our religion".
He said Shan-e-Rasool ((PTUI!)) conferences would be organised at the federal and provincial levels on Friday. The prime minister will address
the conference at the Convention Centre in Islamabad.
In reply to a question, Mr Kaira said the holiday had been declared to facilitate people to participate in rallies to be organised across the country. He requested the masses to remain peaceful.
Some critics, however, are not happy with the government's decision to declare Friday as a national holiday. They are of the opinion that it will encourage people to participate in demonstrations which may turn violent.
A participant of the meeting told Dawn that it was Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
who had made the proposal to declare Friday as a holiday.
Mr Malik was of the opinion that since massive demonstrations had been planned by religious organizations for Friday, protesters might turn violent and damage private and public properties. Therefore, he suggested, it was better to have a holiday to minimise the chances of loot and arson, according to the participant.