Pakistan

Prayers for Bin Laden in National Assembly

Lawmaker leads prayers for al Qaeda chief defying calls from deputy speaker that he needed permission to do so.

Express May 11, 2011

ISLAMABAD/QUETTA:

Parliamentarians were stunned on Tuesday when a lawmaker led prayers for al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, defying calls from Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi that he needed permission to do so.

At the National Assembly session, Maulvi Asmatullah, an independent candidate from NA-264 stood up and said Bin Laden had reportedly been given funeral services by the Americans and “we should pray for him”.

The prayer service hardly lasted a minute in which two JUI-F legislators from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, former federal minister Attaur Rehman and Laiq Muhammad Khan, participated.

The deputy speaker was administering the proceedings on a private members day, but he could not convince the lawmakers to stick to the rules of business. Osama bin Laden was killed in a US operation in Abbottabad in the early hours of May 2.

Earlier, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said in the National Assembly that “Osama bin Laden was the most wanted terrorist and enemy number one of the civilized world.

Elimination of Osama bin Laden, who launched waves after waves of terrorist attacks against innocent Pakistanis, is indeed justice done. However, we are not so naïve to declare victory; missions accomplished, and turn around.”

The first of its kind prayer service at the floor of the National Assembly reflected a divergent view from the official stance over the killing of Bin Laden.

Chaos in Balochistan Assembly

Meanwhile in Quetta, Five PPP ministers have demanded the immediate expulsion of JUI-F from the provincial cabinet for promoting terrorism by supporting the Taliban in Balochistan.

Taking up the floor during Assembly proceedings on Tuesday afternoon, PPP Minister Mir Sadiq Umrani staged a walk-out and accused the JUI of being involved in terrorism.

He was joined by four other PPP Ministers – Ali Madad Jatak, Yunus Mullahzai, Jan Ali Changezi and Jaffar George.

Addressing a news conference after the session, Umrani said that the JUI-F is imposing policies to only protect its own interests.

He alleged that JUI-F annually take away 60 per cent of the total funds of the province. “The entire budget of the Balochistan government has been monopolised by JUI Ministers,” he claimed.

Talking to the media, Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani termed the allegations false and baseless, while JUI-F Parliamentary Leader Maulana Wasey said his party has supported the PPP to form a coalition government.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (25)

Shahryar Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply Well, this is what we have come down too. We should thank Zia & present day media who have glorified people like OBL, Ayman Zawahri & Mulla Omer even Naiek Mohammad, KSM or Ramzi & Afia Siddiqui as heroes of Islam, when these people are the one who damaged Islam the most for their own personal beliefs which have nothing to do with Islam. I have seen our society going down the drain since the past two decades, the whole process started with; I guess it might surprise a few people when i say it all started with ZAB shaking hands with the Mullah's for political support. Islam was brought into everything and now wherever you go people only either discusses Religion or Politics. We don’t talk about education, health care, basic human rights, for us our lives revolve only around on Religion & Politics.

Sami | 13 years ago | Reply Perhaps its very right to pay homage to a person who stood against tyrant Imperialist U.S. good to learn from the Newzealand MP Hone Harawira who about OBL said.... "We have heard nothing but negative things about him from the Americans, but he fought for the self-determination of his people and for his beliefs," and Chosun Shinbo, the publication put out by Chongryon (General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan), who called the U.S. military operation to kill Osama bin Laden evidence of the U.S. being “the main culprit of state terror.” The publication, which represents the stance of the North Korean authorities, heavily criticized the U.S. in an article of the same name, calling the killing the actions of an arrogant imperialist and an infringement of state sovereignty. Perhaps our spineless military and political leadership should learn some manners from new zealander and north koreans. Say the Truth out Loud !!

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Hamid | 13 years ago | Reply Dear Javed, OBL is not Che Guevara but a precious gift to Pakistan with which we can blackmail US and European countries for military aid for conducting dupe fight with terrorists.

R. Khan | 13 years ago | Reply Nation gone insane!

abdussamad | 13 years ago | Reply @Javed: What has OBLs nationality got anything to do with it? Keeping OBL alive was in Pakistan's interests. That is what matters. He was our Che Guevara.

AnisAqeel | 13 years ago | Reply I knew.....I knew, the whole nation is screwed up.

Asad | 13 years ago | Reply What utter nonsense. The man (OBL) is in the darkest recesses of Hades with Stalin and Hitler to keep him company. A prayer for him? What rubbish. These members should be censured and expelled from the house.

Raj | 13 years ago | Reply The White House Announced today that it has decided not to release the Bin Laden photos; instead to keep it a secret they are going to airdrop into an affluent Pakistani suburb, so it won't be found for years. Now an MNA has accepted the death of OBL, USA has no obligation to provide the proof.

Mirza | 13 years ago | Reply It is unfortunate that there are people like that in Pakistan. The problem is not these few people, but their deep roots in the army and ISI. Why only secular people of PPP, ANP and likes are always killed and right wing roam around freely? No agency would ever arrest these terrorist allies and they live happily thereafter. How many right wing leaders of JI, JUI, or likes ever been killed? The head of devil may have been cut but his hands and fingers are still intact.

Usman | 13 years ago | Reply Until OBL's death it was wolf in sheeps clothing, now it is wolf in wolf's clothing !

Javed | 13 years ago | Reply @abdussamad: So you think OBL was a Pakistani. Had OBL been alive today he would have killed you for calling him a Pakistani

observer | 13 years ago | Reply A 'National Assembly' that refused to condemn the murder of Shahbaz Bhatti and a Senate that refused a 'fateha' for Salman Taseer, praying for Osama, is just abour par for the course.

Biff Henderson | 13 years ago | Reply If the reader is a Shia it is my hope the Madhi comes tomarrow to sort out this mess. If your a Sunni I hope that Isa appears and makes it all right with the world. To each group that thinks me an aspostate to even recognize the position of the other, please pray for me like some have done for Usama bin Laden. I'm obviously confused, and Allah knows best. Put in a good word for me through your heartfelt prayers that I may see the light. Thanks in advance.

abdussamad | 13 years ago | Reply Absolutely awesome! A slap in the face for the President and the PM who prefer to suck up to Americans rather than look after Pakistani interests. Japanese leaders still honour their world war 2 commanders even though the west calls them war criminals.

SH | 13 years ago | Reply The law makers who participated in the funeral prayers should be expelled from the national assembly, if for no other reason than for violating house decorum. They openly praised and exalted a (well) known terrorist, and an enemy of Pakistan as stated by the PM, unless of course they accept we're not actually part of the "civilized world"...?

Umar Khan | 13 years ago | Reply What is this place?

Vaqas | 13 years ago | Reply Icing on the cake...why aren't the "honorable" members being suspended or at least chided for breaching the rules of procedure? Just to repeat what the first commenter said, these people spit on the grave of a martyr like Salmaan Taseer but rush to the head of the line to offer prayers for someone who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent men women and children of all religions in Pakistan and around the world. The only solace i find is that these hypocrites will suffer the same fiery afterlife that the man they were praying for is suffering right now

Brilliantly Stupid | 13 years ago | Reply @Mehnaz, will let them know. Stop whinning.

Massileaks | 13 years ago | Reply Ok first the headline is very misleading! Shame on tribune for putting this headline as if it was authorized by the speaker. Clearly the house was stunned and should be stunned! Has tribune turned into an indian newspaper and started putting misleading news? Second its few members of the parliament who should be named and shamed by media just like it did with the fake degree holders. These three members do not represent the parliament or people of pakistan so again shame on putting this headline. You could have simply said that disruption by JUI lawmaker.

Mehnaz | 13 years ago | Reply JUI/ JUI-F should be simply banned & if they protest, their members should be imprisioned indefinitely! Enough already!!!

Naila | 13 years ago | Reply Incredibly ludicrous. Not a single person held any kind of prayer or moment of silence for Shahbaz Bhatti or Salman Taseer in this National Assembly. Just shows you that those who remain quiet when they need to speak out are just as culpable for the mess Pakistan finds herself in.

Zain Ali Raza Siyal | 13 years ago | Reply This is sick!

Cautious | 13 years ago | Reply Have you no shame?

M Ali Khan | 13 years ago | Reply Aren't these degenerates the same people who deny that Osama Bin Laden is dead? Wow, talk about being completely losing your head. Thanks to these mentally insane mullah mard-e-momins who have no genuine electoral support so they do badmaashi in streets with their annoying jalsas by shuttling in their favourite chamchas from madrassahs!

M M Malik | 13 years ago | Reply Osama who is responsible for death of thousands of Americans and Pakistanis has a prayer service in the National Assembly and Salman Taseer who stood for the downtrodden was not treated similarly. Wake up Pakistan.

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