Invitation for Interfaith Seminar Organize by HRF & PHP

By Mohammad S.Solanki (PHP Managing Editor)
Friday, June 11, 2010

Dear Gopinathji
          Hope you will be fine, I am Thank full to you and also Arvindji for good suggestion's. Please see an attach file of  Interfaith Seminar  that will be conduct on 11th June organize by the Hare Rama Foundation and Pakistan Hindu Post.

With regards,
Hare Rama Foundation (Pakistan)

Why Interfaith Seminar, Because it refer to cooperative and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e., "faiths") and spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional level with the aim of deriving a common ground in belief through a concentration on similarities between faiths, understanding of values, and commitment to the Nation.

Introduction to Organizer

Hare Rama Foundation (HRF), Is non-Government & non-profit Organization, registered under Society Act (1860) with Government of Pakistan, Working for the development of the poor and deserving people of Pakistan who aim to contribute their practical services to uplift and develop the whole community.

HRF is working for the Minorities (Scheduled Caste) rights, Women rights, Interfaith Harmony & Educational Improvements in rural areas without any discrimination of race.

We being an Organization, have logically realized that this part of the country or race. (Bahawal Pur Division) & specially the rural areas had never been (focused for practical education, technical education, Interfaith Harmony and Economic development in Pakistan.

Here is HRF Website - http://www.hrfpk.org/

Editorial Note - Pakistan Hindu Post Welcomes and thanks to HRF for its encouraging step for Interfaith-Dialogue to bring peace/posterity in Society of Humankind. Once we receive pictures, it will defiantly be posted in PHP.

Deputy Attorney General serve Hindus to "heal the wounds" and rebuild the image of Islam, Pakistan and Pakhtuns

By Rajesh Kumar (PHP Islamabad)
Friday, June 11, 2010

(PHOTO : Khurshid Khan in middle with Sikhs in Peshawar Temple, Pakistan)

PESHAWAR : After polishing shoes of the Sikh community members at a temple for two months to promote the soft image of Muslims and Pakhtuns, a deputy attorney general from the province is now looking to serve at churches and Hindu temples to further expand his message of peace.

Khurshid Khan, deputy attorney general of Pakistan, is to begin visiting Hindus at Ratan Nath Temple in Karimpura from today in connection with his effort to rebuild the image of Islam, Pakistan and Pakhtuns. He is planning to visit India in the coming days to convey to the Hindu and Sikh community members that Muslims are not terrorists.

Later in the year, he plans to be in the US on 9/11 to communicate his message of peace on the day that the US was attacked and life became difficult for Muslims all over the world. My slogan is that I am a fundamentalist Muslim, a patriotic Pakistani and a true Pakhtun but not a terrorist, Khurshid Khan told The News.

The senior lawyer said he felt Muslims and Pakhtuns needed to portray their true image to the world. He worked at Sikh temple, Gurdwara Jogan Singh, in Dabgari, Peshawar, for almost two months to rebuild the image of Muslims. He started visiting the temple after killing of a Sikh, Jaspal Singh, at the hands of kidnappers. Two other companions of Jaspal Singh were recovered during a military operation.

For days they suspected me. Later, one of their elders allowed me to work at the shoe kiosk where I used to place shoes of the Sikhs visiting the temple for worship in a rack and also polished it, said the senior advocate, who unsuccessfully contested election to the National Assembly twice in 1985 and 2002.

While serving at the temple in Dabgari Bazaar, Khurshid used to follow the Sikh principles like wearing yellow headscarf and observing silence when the Sikhs offered prayers. Khurshid has been in active politics since his student days at the University of Peshawar. He headed the Peoples Students Federation at the university twice and later became its provincial chairman.

Khurshid grabbed attention when he shot himself in the hand during a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club before the 2002 general elections to protest the PPP decision not to give him a ticket to contest election for the NA-1 (Peshawar) seat. During the movement of lawyers, he sprayed the face of Ahmad Raza Kasuri, the counsel for former President Gen Pervez Musharraf, with paint to protest the insulting remarks of the latter against senior members of the legal fraternity. Today I visited Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Hassanabdal. I have studied books about Sikh religion which also preach peace and love like Islam, he said.

Khurshid said he was a true Muslim and his visits to the worship places of Sikhs, Hindus and Christians were meant to remove the misgivings about the Muslims. He said he was a fundamentalist Muslim, offering his prayers regularly and reciting Holy Quran and Darood Sharif most of the time.

VIEW : The demand for Pakistan and Islam —By Ishtiaq Ahmed

Source Daily Times
Friday, June 11, 2010

(PHOTO : Ishtiaq Ahmed)

The Muslim League’s propaganda struck terror in the hearts of the Hindus and Sikhs who were told that they would be paying jazya and Islamic law will prevail in all sectors of individual and collective life. The minority Shia and Ahmediyya communities were also fearful that it would result in Sunni domination

The recent attack on a congregation of Ahmedis during prayers, which claimed more than 90 innocent lives, has revived a discussion as to whether there is a connection between the creation of Pakistan and Islam. Within the Muslim League there was always a constituency in favour of Pakistan becoming an Islamic state. One of its proponents was a close confident of Jinnah: Raja Sahib Mahmudabad, a Shia. In 1939 he wrote to the historian Mohibul Hassan:

“When we speak of democracy in Islam it is not democracy in the government but in the cultural and social aspects of life. Islam is totalitarian — there is no denying about it. It is the Quran that we should turn to. It is the dictatorship of the Quranic laws that we want — and that we will have — but not through non-violence and Gandhian truth” (Mushirul Hasan, 1997: 57-8).

If the March 23, 1940, Lahore Resolution be taken as the start of the Pakistan campaign, then Jinnah had to make a breakthrough in the Muslim-majority provinces of northwestern India — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh — each of which had regional parties headed by Muslims. The Muslim League had to convince the Muslim voters in these provinces that their leaders were courting Hindus and Sikhs and thus were paving the way for Hindu Raj under the Indian National Congress. That opportunity arrived in July 1945 when the British government announced provincial elections for February 1946. Punjab Governor Sir Bertrand Glancy has recorded in several secret fortnightly reports (FR) the tactics that the Muslim League adopted during the long election campaign. In the FR of December 27, 1945, Glancy noted:

“Among Muslims the Leaguers are increasing their efforts to appeal to the bigotry of the electors. Pirs and maulvis have been enlisted in large numbers to tour the province and denounce all who oppose the League as infidels. Copies of the Holy Quran are carried around as an emblem peculiar to the Muslim League. Feroz [Khan Noon] and others openly preach that every vote given to the League is a vote cast in favour of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). These deplorable tactics, as I have frequently said, were only to be expected; they provide a grim augury of the future peace of India and they are certainly not easy for the Unionists to counter” (Lionel Carter, 2006: 160).

In the FR of February 2, 1946, Glancy wrote:

“The ML [Muslim League] orators are becoming increasingly fanatical in their speeches. Maulvis and pirs and students travel all round the province and preach that those who fail to vote for the League candidates will cease to be Muslims; their marriages will no longer be valid and they will be entirely excommunicated...It is not easy to foresee what the results of the elections will be. But there seems little doubt the Muslim League, thanks to the ruthless methods by which they have pursued their campaign of ‘Islam in danger’, will considerably increase the number of their seats and Unionist representatives will correspondingly decline” (Carter, 2006: 171).

Similar tactics were adopted in the campaigns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. In his doctoral dissertation, India, Pakistan or Pakhtunistan?, Erland Jansson writes:

“The pir of Manki Sharif...founded an organisation of his own, the Anjuman-us-asfia. The organisation promised to support the Muslim League on the condition that Shariat would be enforced in Pakistan. To this Jinnah agreed. As a result the pir of Manki Sharif declared jihad to achieve Pakistan and ordered the members of his anjuman to support the League in the 1946 elections” (pg 166).

Jinnah wrote in November 1945 a letter to Pir Manki Sharif in which he promised that the Shariat would apply to the affairs of the Muslim majority. He wrote:

“It is needless to emphasise that the Constituent Assembly, which would be predominantly Muslim in its composition, would be able to enact laws for Muslims, not inconsistent with the Shariat laws and the Muslims will no longer be obliged to abide by the un-Islamic laws” (Constituent Assembly of Pakistan Debates, Volume 5, 1949, pg 46).

The Muslim League’s propaganda struck terror in the hearts of the Hindus and Sikhs who were told that they would be paying jazya and Islamic law will prevail in all sectors of individual and collective life. The minority Shia and Ahmediyya communities were also fearful that it would result in Sunni domination. This is obvious from the correspondence between the Shia leader Syed Ali Zaheer and Jinnah in July 1944 (G Allana, 1977: 375-9). Although the Council of Action of the All-Parties Shia Conference passed a resolution on December 25, 1945, rejecting the idea of Pakistan (SR Bakshi, 1997: 848-9), most Shias shifted their loyalty to the Muslim League in the hope that Pakistan will be a non-sectarian state. Initially the Ahmediyya were also wary and reluctant to support the demand for a separate Muslim state (Munir Report, 1954: 196). It is only when Sir Zafarullah was won over by Jinnah that the Ahmedis started supporting the demand for Pakistan. To all such groups Jinnah gave assurances that Pakistan will not be a sectarian state.

In my forthcoming book on the partition of Punjab, now running into more than 1,000 pages but which is at last completed and for which I am now looking for a publisher, I will shed light on how the fierce Islamist propaganda impacted on the partition of Punjab. The Sikhs had more fears than anyone else about what could happen to minorities in Pakistan. In a meeting in May 1947 sponsored by Lord Mountbatten to help the Muslims and Sikhs reach an agreement on keeping Punjab united, Jinnah offered the Sikhs all the safeguards they wanted if they agreed to support Pakistan. Only in March 1947 some 2,000-10,000 Sikhs — depending on who you cite — were butchered in the Rawalpindi rural areas so the Sikhs were very wary of Jinnah’s overtures. Chief Minister of Patiala Hardit Singh Malik writes he had an inspiration and asked Jinnah: “Sir you are making all the promises but God forbid if something happens to you, what will happen then?” The exact words Jinnah used in reply will be revealed in my forthcoming book, but the reasoning was that his followers will treat his words as sacred.

Ishtiaq Ahmed is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) and the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Stockholm University. He is currently working on a book, Is Pakistan a Garrison State? He can be reached at isasia@nus.edu.sg

It is time to bring back the ‘white’ a Constitutional Obligation for Pakistan to Protect the Rights of the Minorities

By Editorial Staff
Friday, June 11, 2010

 (PHOTO : National Flag of Pakistan with white stripe in flag “represents the minorities”)

Islamabad : The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s website tells us that our national flag “symbolises Pakistan’s profound commitment to Islam, the Islamic world and the rights of religious minorities” and that the white stripe in our national flag “represents the minorities”.

Unfortunately, for the last 25 years, Pakistan officially forgot the rights of its minorities to ‘freely’ “profess and practice their religions and develop their cultures”. General Ziaul Haq omitted the word ‘freely’ from the original text of the Objectives Resolution through the 8th Amendment. Nobody noticed it till now when the incumbent government was able to restore the word in the constitution through the 18th Amendment. It is shocking that not only was this omission never highlighted but even the reinsertion was ignored by many until the Supreme Court’s remarks on this issue on Tuesday. The chief justice remarked how strange it was “that not even a single member in the 1985 National Assembly noticed the mistake and allowed the 8th Amendment to pass just like that.” He lauded the incumbent parliament for doing away with this grave injustice to the minorities.

In the absence of a constitution immediately after independence, Pakistan was ruled under the Government of India Act 1935. The Objectives Resolution was passed in 1949 by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan so that the country’s future constitution would not be completely based on a European model. This resolution laid the foundations of an incrementally theocratic state, something that the founder of Pakistan, Mr Jinnah, never envisaged.

In his August 11, 1947 speech, Jinnah made it clear that one’s religion would have nothing to do with the business of the state. “Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the state,” were the exact words of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. But the Objectives Resolution and subsequently all our rulers ignored Jinnah and did the exact opposite of what he professed and stood for. As Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry rightly remarked, it is indeed strange that nobody noticed this ‘mistake’ (read criminal negligence) in 1985. For the past 25 years, the state had officially stamped its approval to ‘freely’ discriminate against religious minorities. Jinnah and the others who fought for the freedom of Pakistan always argued that the Muslims were a large minority in India, thus they needed constitutional safeguards. The Congress’s refusal to accept the Muslim minority as a nation inevitably led to the partition of the Indian subcontinent. It is both ironic and tragic that a state formed on the basis of a large minority transmogrified into a state that could not protect the rights of its own minorities. Successive governments and the military, for their foreign policy objectives, nurtured the religious extremists, ultimately leading to an intolerant society. We just have to take a look around us to know how the Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmedis and Shias have been subjected to violence by the right-wing fanatics over the years. The massacre of the Ahmedis on May 28 is a grim reminder of the state of affairs vis-à-vis the minorities in Pakistan.

Justice Jawwad S Khwaja’s words are true: “We cannot shut our eyes or go into denial as intolerance is increasing. All is not honky dory here.” It is a constitutional obligation for all state institutions, including the judiciary, to protect the rights of the minorities. It is time to bring back the ‘white’. *

Pakistan : Sikh yatrees arrive for Guru Arjun Dev’s 404th death anniversary

By Dr.Radhe Shyam Kumar (PHP Lahore)
Friday, June 11, 2010

(PHOTO : Sikh Yatrees arrive in Lahore, Pakistan)

* Pilgrims arrive at Wahga Railway Station, later leave for Hassanabdal
* Yatrees’ leader says India, Pakistan should enhance confidence-building process, resume bilateral talks
* Sikh community wants both countries to ease visa process

LAHORE : Around 450 Sikh pilgrims arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday to attend the 404th death anniversary of Guru Arjun Dev Gee at the Gurdwara Dera Sahib.

Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Additional Secretary Saddique Khurram and Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Perbandhak Committee (PSGPC) President Sardar Sham Singh, along with local Sikhs, welcomed the pilgrims at the Wahga Railway Station.

A special train carrying Sikh yatrees from India reached at the Wahga station, who later left in another special train for Gurdwara Panja Sahib at Hassanabdal.

A member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Perbandhak Committee and the yatrees’ leader Sardar Ragbeer Singh told reporters that India and Pakistan should enhance the confidence-building process and resume bilateral talks. He said the Sikh community in India wanted both the countries to ease the visa process.

According to an EPTB official, the pilgrims would be provided improved facilities and accommodation at the gurdwaras across the country.

During their 10-day stay in Pakistan, the pilgrims will visit their religious places at Gurdwara Panja Sahib (Hassanabdal), Gurdwara Janam Asthan (Nankana Sahib), and Gurdwara Dera Sahib (Lahore).

The main function of the anniversary celebrations would be held in Lahore on June 16, while the yatrees will leave for India on June 17.

Guru Arjun Dev Jee was born on April 15, 1563 AD at Goindwal, a small town on the bank of River Beas in the district of Amritsar. He was the fifth Sikh guru and died on May 30, 1606 during the era of Emperor Jahangir. He was a brilliant student and had command over Gurmukhi, Persian, Hindi and Sanskrit. All his life he preached love towards humanity, equality, respect for all religions and equal treatment of all mankind.

Guru Arjun had compiled the Guru Granth Sahib in 1604. He was later imprisoned and killed in 1606 by Emperor Jahangir.

According to historical facts compiled by the PSGPC, Chandu Lal, a Hindu, was an official during Emperor Jahangir’s rule and wanted his daughter to marry Guru Arjun’s son, Guru Hargobind. However, when Guru Hargobind refused to marry her, it is believed that Chandu Lal instigated Jahangir to kill Guru Arjun.

Guru Arjan was dropped in River Ravi, while a crowd stood above and watched as their leader drowned. His dead body never came up on the surface and it is believed that the guru disappeared alive.

Currently, there is a well inside Gurdwara Dera Sahib at the point where Guru Arjun Dev was dropped in River Ravi. Sikh pilgrims visit that well every year at the gurdwara in the memory of their leader.

On the arrival of the Sikh yatrees, special security arrangements had been made by the government at Wahga, while the citizens received the pilgrims warmly. Special arrangements for currency exchange had also been made at the Wahga station.

HRCP concerned over governance issues, exit of honest officers in Pakistan

By Editorial Staff
Friday, June 11,2010

(LEFT TO RIGHT: Sigourney Weaver, Elisa Massimino, Asma Jahangir, Oleg Kozlovsky, Nora Younis, and Saad Eddin Ibrahim pose for a group photo)

Lahore : The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has expressed alarm at the deteriorating level of governance in the country and has called the departure of the State Bank of Pakistan governor another example of officials, who are unwilling to bow to pressure, being shown the door.

A statement issued by the Commission of Friday said: “The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has watched with concern the deteriorating level of governance in the country. It is true that the federal and provincial governments are facing numerous challenges because of the spread of militancy and the utter chaos they inherited from the previous regime.

At the same time, it is regrettable that nepotism, corruption and self-interest continue to be a priority of the government. It is evident that such malpractices take a heavy toll on people’s right to transparent and efficient governance that alone can bring prosperity and security. The recent departure of the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan on the eve of presentation of the annual budget is another example of easing out honest and upright officials who are unwilling to bow to unreasonable pressures. HRCP believes that the public and the press must continue to hold the government accountable for its decisions of appointments to key institutions. The appointment of the new governor of the State Bank of Pakistan should be watched closely and HRCP urges the government to respect merit rather than personal loyalties while making such crucial decisions. It encourages upright officials to put the interest of the people as a priority and resist pressures that may induce them to ignore malpractices.”

Asma Jahangir,
Chairperson,HRCP

PHC says Hindu Community makes 6% of total population of Pakistan are Denied Social Justice and feeling insecure in Muslim Dominated Country

By Rajesh Kumar (PHP Islamabad)
Thursday, June 10,2010

 PHOTO :Dr.Ramesh Kumar (Pakistan Hindu Council General Body Meeting held on 30th January 2009 at Indus hotel Hyderabad)

Karachi : (PHP) According to Hindu leaders in Pakistan, Hindu community makes 6% of total population of Pakistan are denied social justice in Muslim dominated society of Pakistan. The leaders of Pakistan Hindu Council addressing a press conference here today in Karachi Press Club demanded government of Pakistan to adopt necessary measures to preserve sanctity of its temples and to address an overall the feeling of individual and collective insecurity and uncertainty.

Pakistan Hindu Council a representative forum of Hindu Community in Pakistan demanded Governor of Sindh, Chief Minister of Sindh, provincial ministers belonging to religious minorities and Home Minister Sindh Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza to order the investigation the incident related to the sacrilege of one of the biggest Hindu temple of the province, Sant Neno Ram Ashram at Islamkot Tharparker, the biggest Hindu Temple in Sindh, by a person who destroyed the religious statues that has sent wrong message to the Hindu community and has caused an all pervading sense of insecurity among its members, Sindh in particular and across the country in general.

The PHC leaders were joined by PHC patron Ramesh Kumar Vankani, a former member of provincial assembly of Sindh, accompanied by president Raja Assermal Manglani, finance secretary Jiwat Vaswani and member Engr. Hotchand Karmani to highlight Hindu community concerns in Pakistan.

PHC leaders said that the sacrilegious incident in Tharparkar, which houses the biggest numbers of Hindus, who make up 55 per cent of Tharparkar’s 600,000 population, has made Hindus extremely concerned about their well-being and security because Hindus and Muslims have lived in utmost religious harmony and tolerance for ages. “Though the accused has been arrested he has been given the jail remand instead of being remanded to police so that it could properly investigate the case to unmask the reasons and the real perpetrators”,

Answering a question Dr. Vankwani said that though Hindus make up just 6 per cent of the 170 million population of the country (officially Hindus make up 1.85 per cent, Christians 1.6 per cent and other make up 0.55 per cent of the total population in a country 96 per cent of whose population is Muslim) the crime ratio against them is an un-proportionate high of as much as 60 per cent.

The leaders of Hindu community strongly condemned the murder of Hindu shopkeeper Ramesh Kumar and the kidnapping of his son Vijay in the business district of Quetta city in the province of Balochistan a day before on June 8. They appealed the Chief Minister of Blaochistan Aslam Raeesani and Governor of the province Zulfiqar Magsi to apprehend the culprits and get Vijay released from the hold of kidnappers and to take appropriate measures so no such incident happens again.