Writing in Jinnah chief editor Jinnah stated that while visiting Masjid Qartaba in Spain with a group of journalists as Prime Minister Gilani visited Brussels, he noted that the Masjid had been deprived of its Muslim character. But Islam was spreading and the Muslims will be back in Spain soon to reclaim it. His feelings were shared by other journalists like Zahid Malik, Muhammad Malik and Saleh Zaafar, etc. They also considered treating the churches in Pakistan the same way.
Shahrukh Khan in Madrid
Chief Editor Jinnah wrote that while he and a group of Pakistani top journalists were in Madrid they saw that a cinema hall had long queues of people trying to buy tickets. They discovered that it was an Indian film featuring Shahrukh Khan and Kajol. Shockingly the film was dubbed and there was a lot of accompanying literature being sold to acquaint people with the theme.
Veena still loves Asif
According to Jinnah film actress Veena who recently got engaged to marry Faisal on her parents' insistence still loved cricketer fast bowler Muhammad Asif who had abandoned her and married someone else. She said she loved Asif despite the fact that he ate up Rs 1.5 crore that belonged to her and were given to him as help. She said she could not bear to see Asif looking at another woman.
Imran Khan and Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Famous columnist Haroon Rashid stated in Jang that after the 2005 earthquake in Azad Kashmir, Imran Khan went to witness the situation and soon ended up building 10,000 shelter homes for the stricken people. But Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who also went there and pledged to a build similar number of homes, had not built a single one since 2005.
Paradise for killing Qadianis
Reported in Jinnah terrorist Abdullah, caught after the May 28 massacre of Ahmadis in Lahore, said he had been told to kill Qadianis to get to Paradise. He said he wanted to use the suicide jacket he was wearing but lost guts at the last moment. He said he and his brother were trained at Miramshah in North Waziristan. The paper also reported that another terrorist was caught at Chenab Nagar looking for an opportunity to attack Ahmadis there.
‘ANP doesn't love Pakistan'
Ex-army chief Aslam Beg was quoted by daily Pakistan that those who demanded that the NWFP be renamed Pakhtunkhwa never loved Pakistan. The man who coined the name, Abdul Ghaffar Khan did not express commitment to Pakistan and the character of his son Wali Khan too was not hidden from anyone. Beg stated that it would be folly to start an operation against the Taliban in Punjab and that the US had got Pakistan to agree that the Taliban would be kept out of the Afghan coalition.
Load-shedding in India
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that during his last visit to India he discovered that India was no better than Pakistan in outward civic conditions, but the Pakistanis across the border had no way of knowing it. There was extreme poverty to be seen on the roads, more intense than the one in Pakistan. There was load-shedding in New Delhi and Mumbai up to four hours while in Bihar and Assam it went up to 18 hours. Like Pakistan, the city roads were dug-up by contractors working at snail's pace on their development projects.
Don't call them a Muslim sect!
Daily Islam reported from Karachi that the great ulema of the city like Mufti Munib had said that calling the Ahmadis a Muslim sect was against the law and they will not allow anyone to call them so. They said that those who sympathised with the Ahmadis after the Lahore massacred were against Islam and should be proceeded against.
Anchors on the take
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that there were many black sheep in the media who took money from the agencies. He revealed that a lady MNA and her father were known for passing the bounty around to the media persons and anchors and were still doing the job on behalf of Musharraf. Musharraf was told in Dubai that if he paid Rs 5 crore any anchor could be bought.
‘Army chief has too many powers'
As another proof that some see General Kayani leaning to the American line, ex-ISI chief Hamid Gul told daily Pakistan that Pakistan's army chief had too many powers which should be curtailed, but he did not say how. He said a big change was coming in Afghanistan in which his part too would be revealed.
No ‘burqa' in Pakistan, please!
Reported in Jang former Justice Nasira Javid Iqbal stated that Pakistan should impose a ban on the wearing of burqa by women as it was not a part of Islamic civilisation but had been taken from local culture. She welcomed a decision handed down by a court in Bangladesh banning the wearing of burqa. She said the chadar was in the right tradition.
Who ‘first' wrote national anthem?
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that the Quaid-e-Azam had first asked a Hindu poet Jagan Nath Azad to write a national anthem for Pakistan which he did. His anthem was ordered sung by the Quaid on Radio Pakistan which actually happened till he died. After his death Jagan Nath Azad's anthem was removed and a new one obtained from Hafeez Jalundhari, which is the current national anthem.
Why did Zia kill Bhutto?
According to Hamid Mir in Jang, General Zia got Bhutto out of jail to ask him to change the Constitution and make space in it of a permanent military role as in the case of Turkey, but Bhutto refused whereupon a case of murder was trumped up against him and he was hanged. A book compiled from Bhutto's last words says Bhutto criticised Wali Khan, Mufti Mehmood and Nawabzada Nasrullah for letting him down.
‘Ankhon mein ankhey dal kar'
After hearing chief minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif saying that he would talk to India after ankhon mein ankhey dal kar (putting eyes in the eyes of) columnist Nazir Naji wrote an imaginative piece in Jang saying that India had chosen Reena Rai to look Shehbaz Sharif in the eye. After they had clasped together their eyes, an interesting dialogue had ensued.
Fatima Bhutto and Zardari
Daily Pakistan quoted the daughter of Murtaza Bhutto, Fatima Bhutto as saying in her book that after her father was expected to be arrested after his press conference she rang Benazir but she would not pick up the phone. But Zardari finally took the phone and said don't you know that your father has been shot dead? She said the road was washed after Murtaza's death; so was the road washed after Benazir's death.
Destruction of the ‘zarraar' mosque
Dr Salees Sultana Chughtai wrote in Daily Islam that the Holy Prophet PBUH was asked by pretenders and deceivers to come and pray in the third mosque they had built in Madina after Quba and Nabwi. The Prophet PBUH knew that this was not a genuine mosque and did not comply. Later the Quran explained the mosque of Zarraar (mosque that does damage) as a plot - which made the Prophet PBUH give orders to destroy it.
No ‘sawab' for Qadianis, please!
Daily Islam reported from Azad Kashmir that an ulema committee passed a resolution in Muzaffarabad saying that anyone praying and sending sawab to Qadianis was rebelling against the Constitution , which will not be tolerated. They said the Lahore massacre was a plot to get the army to attack South Punjab.
Jamshed Dasti knows his Suras
Quoted in Jang PPP MNA Jamshed Dasti who resigned from parliament for possessing a fake degree told Alim on Line talk show that when the Court asked him to name the two first Suras of the Quran he was too overawed to remember (zaban phissal gai) but the truth was that he was truly of firm faith (rasikh aqeeda) and actually remembered the names of many Suras.