Share this article
Print this page
Email a friend
- RSS
- Today's Paper
- Subscribe
- beta 2.0
High: 33°C
Low: 27°C
Alerts
DG Khan’s Shia community considers testing ballot power
Community leader says new coalition to contest next general elections to be announced after extensive consultations.
Community leader says new coalition to contest next general elections to be announced after extensive consultations. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
TAUNSA: Fed up by what they call the government’s lack of support, the Shia community in Dera Ghazi Khan is considering contesting the next general elections through a separate platform.
“The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal does not seem to be regrouping and we cannot join Difa-i-Pakistan Council as it has been encouraging banned militant religious organisations,” Shia leader Allama Sajid Ali Naqvi said on Monday, talking to reporters in DG Khan’s Taunsa sub-district. He said that in support of a democratic transition, they will contest elections from the platform of an ‘Islamic movement’. “After community consultation, we will put forward a new coalition.”
He said that it appeared as if the government was more interested in providing protocol to criminals in prisons and securing them, instead of punishing them for their crimes. “After the Alipur incident, the Punjab government should have stopped (banned militant organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi chief) Malik Ishaq but they decided to arrest members of the Shia community.” He said that four Shia people had been arrested in the case, who must be immediately released.
If these terrorists are not rounded up, they will become a rope around the government’s own neck, said Naqvi. “Terrorists will gain ground in Pakistan because the government is least bothered with creating a vibrant economy that can address the grievances of the people.”
Reader Comments (37)
Latest News
This wedding will be facebooked: Zuckerberg marries longtime girlfriend
Zuckerberg married Priscilla Chan whom he had met while at Harvard, and have maintained their relationship since then.
US does not expect resolution of Nato supply route during Chicago summit
White House deputy National Security Advisor says there is no bilateral Zardari, Obama meeting scheduled.
KCCI president in US on official visit
Apprises citizens about investment opportunities in Pakistan.
Veena Malik is not my friend: Dolly Bindra
Veena Malik is in India due to her immoral acts, accused Dolly Bindra.
Next fiscal year: Govt likely to keep petroleum levy target unchanged
It will seek to collect Rs120 billion by increasing the levy.
Recent Slideshows
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, redistributed or derived from.
Unless otherwise stated, all content is copyrighted © 2012 The Express Tribune News Network.
Technical feedback? webmaster@tribune.com.pk
shia should be given 4 reserve seats in national assemblyRecommend
FACTs: Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, PM Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, PM Benazir Bhutto, PM Yousof Raza Gillani, President Zardari, COAS Gen Musa Khan, The banker of the world Agha Hassan Abidi (founder of UBL, ABL and BCCI), The house of habib owner of Habib Bank, Habib AG Zurich, Metropolitan Bank, Soneri Bank, Bank Al Habib, are all shia leaders. If i add Agha Khanis and Bohras in Shia community that will take away half of the Karachi’s economy i.e. from Marriots, PCs to Bohri Bazars and everything in between. The fact is Shia’s are the moderate face of Pakistan who have never thought about dividing the country or vote bank on a religious grounds. They only appear for few days as a group in the observation of Moharram. Thats why you will see Faisal Raza Abdi on PPP ticket contesting against Haider Abbas Rizvi of MQM. Shirazi’s of Thatta contesting on PML Q ticket against Zulfiqar Mirza of PPP. All are shais but it has never mattered to us becuase we are firecely NATIONALISTS. The harmony should be maintained and the religious, sectarian colour shouldnt be painted on the political basis. If there is injustice, then there is injustice for everyone. 100,000s hindus are being converted in Sindh, Christians are being marginalized, Ahmedis are being targeted as well. Let the sanity prevail in this nation. The root cause of all of this is “Poor Governance” which is creating a vaccum which is filled by Arab Petro dollar resulting in sectarianism and marginalization in Pakistan. The same product is then refined by the intelligence agencies for strategic depth and neusance across the borders with little concern for their future generations.Recommend
zab was a staunch sunni as is geelani yes nusrat was shia they are hardly 15% as per 1941 census but very vocal should be treated as they treat sunni baloch/kurd in iranRecommend
@abdullah We should not be looking at the difference country… this is one of the biggest problem we are faceing in pakistan what happend in iran and saudia we do not need to implement in pakistan this is there problem what iran do to the Kurd and bloch and what saudia do to the shia and bralvi …. it completly difference to what we need to be done in order to restore the peace and harmony among muslim ummah … please think before you wright.. god bless people like you…
Recommend
They must respect the majority Sunni’s and not step on their toes.
Recommend
@abudullah
you wave around old statistics, after 1947 a lot of Shia migrated to Pakistan from north India, like my mother’s Rizvi Syed clan, plus many others also entered later, like the Hazara community of Quetta.
And Shias in Iran may be saying, lets treat these guys like they treat us everywhere else, considering Shia Iran & Iraq are a relatively new phenomenon and before the Safavid switch to Shiism the Shia were an oppressed minority everywhere.
Recommend
@asad:
we cant live in isolation pakistan or no pakistan i dont care but yes i care about my baloch/kurd in irani cult regime occupation so if you kill us there dont expect any thing better here pls do try your nusrats farahnaz isphani types in the corridors of power i mean women power but as u do in bahrain iran iraq or shaam expect same in AF PAK
Recommend
@abdullah:
1941 census is pretty much outdated considering we’re 70 years along.
Put aside the narrow minded petty prejudice and biased hatred on how you would treat Pakistani minorities based on how minorities are treated in other countries.
Consider the way Christians and Hindus are treated in Pak, it should mean a freehand for the US and Indian majorities to met out the same bigoted discrimination on Muslims, right? Wrong. No discrimination should be happening in any of these countries, period.
Imagine if there was a nation with a Shia majority and one of them said they’ll treat their Sunni minority based on the treatment of the Shia minority in Saudi Arabia. Does that make sense or sound fair or just the same old revengeful hateful bigoted sectarianism?
Regardless, seems the shameful treatment you want to met out against your minority Pakistani Shia Muslim countrymen is becoming a brutal reality with Wahhabi/Deoband/Salafi/Sunni extremist sectarian terrorists Malik Ishaq and L-e-J being enabledRecommend
Abdullah is right in saying about kurd and baloch are discriminated in iran and sunnis in iraq are worst off and by the way if we dont mind there problems what the iran to do with shia afghan and shias in quetta or in pakistan when ever some thing happend iranian feel too much pain but they dont feel any thing if some thing happend to bosnian sunnis..
Recommend
world is global village revenge is human nature
Recommend
@Ali Tanoli:
The more you touch on these topics, the more you seem to have some anti-Iran, anti-Shia resentment, based on some weird sentiment and allegations, which is a bit disappointing.
True, the Iran govt have discriminated against ethnic and religious minorities, and must be condemned. But (not a qualifier ‘but,but’..!) how you seem to connect it with how you want to feel against minorities in Pak and elsewhere, as a way to dismiss the reality of sectarianism on our own soil, is something else.
You never seem to complain in the same way that sectarianism and discrimination existing elsewhere, such as in Arabia, and the fact that they too don’t speak up for all Muslims, Shia Muslims particularly with sometimes more extreme oppressive measures, indeed even importing their Wahhabi ideology of discriminating other sects in other countries, which you earlier seem to defend.
Why do you need to fabricate that Iranians don’t speak up about other Muslims, particularly Sunni Muslims? They many times have (annoyingly for some Arab residents), such as for Bosniaks (Iran like Pakistan sent arms during the siege and embargo), Palestinians, Egyptians, etc.
Of course they’ve practiced hypocrisy as well (their internal crackdown and Syria help), but you take a step further to embellish the truth for bias, like done elsewhere on a comment in regards to 1979 Makkah siege, which had nothing to do with the new regime in Iran (or the India/Pak topic it was discussed in) and again here on Bosniaks.
What’s important is, there are Pakistani minority residents in DGK who are feeling pain and are under distress. Don’t let prejudice against Iran get in the way of that…
Recommend
@abdullah:
Lust is human nature. But practicing it is un-Islamic and haram. So is this blind hate and revenge. Forgiveness…now that’s divine. And I hope Allah (swt) can forgive our transgressions and the sad mindset we’ve cultivated in Pakistan.
Not everyone on the globe subscribes to bloody tribal stupidity. And I do mean bloody and stupid.
Just because the Saudis discriminate against their Shia minority, doesn’t mean I’m going to take revenge against my Pakistani Sunni countrymen and brothers, or even against Saudi Arabian Sunnis for that matter.
We’re suppose to be Muslims, not rabid ideological barbarians.
Indeed some can rise above and be better human beings, better Muslims, building a better society based on justice and righteousness (not self-righteousness), rather than being backward steeped in revenge and illogical twisted punishment and abuse based on the perception of another country discriminating someone of your own background.
All I can say is that you’ve thrown your hat with sectarian bigots and extremists.Recommend
ali tanoli / abdullah. no matter what.. insha’Allah Pakistan will never be wahabi/deobandi state we have faceing these things for 30 year and we are willing to face another 300 years nothing can stop the true religion of Imam hussain (as)Recommend
@Noice
Safavied converting lot of iranians sunnis to shiaism by forced and before not one sunni left
in iran Usmania of Turkey entered in war and stoped safavi keep commiting this crime.
Recommend
Looking at the comments here it seems to me that the people following Islam’s majority sect simply cant differentiate between right and wrong and have the minds of children.
Recommend
@bigsaf:
i dont believe in artificial countries created by u k/u s after ww2 i am baloch and my people are being killed under a cult regime so as per quran and basic human nature we want qasas in D G KHAN
Recommend
@asad:
dont worry turks are coming back and we will see what happens to your pakistan
Recommend
The worst thing would be a Shia-Sunni political fight. WORST EVER
Recommend
Definitely there are more Shia in Pakistan today than in forties, I don’t know much about other areas but according to my dad there were only few Shia families in our area in fifties, and now in our Punjab assembly constituency there are more than 100000 Shia votes.
Recommend
ET, either please publish this or remove the comment where you’ve given voice to an anti-Pak extremist justifying sectarian massacres. It deserves a response and can’t be left there.
@abdullah:
It’s not basic human nature. It’s criminal extremism and condoning of massacre and terrorism.
Doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in artificial countries and want independence. It doesn’t give you the right to go on frenzied murdering sprees, even in retaliation.
Being an anti-Iran and anti-Pakistan Baloch, whose people is in plight, does not justify your militancy in massacring innocent people who have nothing to do with your plight or being responsible for it.
Well you can’t have ‘Qasas’ in DG Khan or elsewhere in Pak for your grievance against the Iran govt and forces. It is NOT ‘as per Quran’. Don’t twist the Quran to justify bigoted anti-Shia sectarian hate.
Qisas holds only the one who committed the crime responsible. Not other innocent people of the same religious (and totally different ethnic community from Iranians) background, including women and children, in DG Khan, Punjab, Pakistan. What you suggest is inhuman, criminal and un-Islamic.Recommend
@Ali Wali: do u think any mass conversion has taken place?obviously not its because of 8 fold increase i population through out world but the ratio of population remain the same one punjab assembly seat consists of min 150 thousend voters so 10000 shia means 7.5% in total population
Recommend
@bigsaf: so pls wait till 2014 for new geographical truths every thing will be clear
Recommend
@abdullah:
Sorry, the Iran-Pak gas pipeline will not justify your ethnic separatist un-Islamic militancy and criminal anti-Shia sectarianism and terrorism against innocent Pakistani, or Punjabi, residents in any legal, humanitarian or Islamic law.
You do a disservice to peaceful Baloch activists and innocents, and if this is the evil backward mindset of spreading ethnic and sectarian hate and terrorism that’s been adopted, you’ve lost all sympathy.
Recommend
@bigsaf:
mr bigsaf the iran punjab pipeline will have the same fate as turkemeistan afghanistan pakistan pipe line so forget it with in months the u s iranian cult regime will be having worst nature of clashes of intrest in which iranian occoupied baloch land upto hurmozgan will be of prime importance so thats it rest whole of middle east including pakistani portion of middle east will be part of problem and then souloution .your proposed shia crecent in middle east has been abondened syria after liberation turkey hashmite of jordan kurdistan arabian gulf all will be united so no scope of shia ism left in whole area yes you can move back to lucknow and live life of wajid ali shah because in sunni ocean from morroco to indonesia u cant maintain a shia island so good luck go to lucknow live like wajid ali shah
Recommend
Are Abdullah & Ali Tanoli are depicting the TRUE ideology of Islam??? I Guess YES as i cant see anyone disagreeing with them except few. If this is the mindset of the masses of Pakistan thn all my prayers are with the minorities.
Recommend
@abdullah
Ali Wali quoted a figure of “100000″ not “10000″. Let me explain with words not digits, since you seem to have trouble reading digits. Its ok, I guess brainwashing impairs a man’s sight and logic.
So Ali Wali quoted a figure of a Hundred thousand not ten thousand. You missed a zero. Now One Hundred Thousand in One Hundred and Fifty Thousand make up a percentage of 66% of the total.
Lets move you to Ali Wali’s district, I bet the schools there teach better math than wherever you got your education
Recommend
@Noise:
ali wali can add 3 more zeros but there is no such distt in punjab even any constituency check it with NADRA with one lakh shia voters any where understand i belong to the chief clan/sardar khel of laghari tribe so i think i have more geopolitical knowledge.you simply see the birth rate of sunni double then shia through out the world and pls give me an example of mass conversion of sunni to shiamat in pakistan where if not lakh atleast thousends converted .so higher birth rate no conversion since 1941 then how can your ratio increased ?simple question ?pakistan adaam shumari also favours my statement not ali wali .rest we will give u same rights as my baloch kurd are given in persia understand
Recommend
@Noise:
if u r majority even in ali wali district pls show me nadra record
Recommend
@Noise:
if you r a majority then why u r crying
Recommend
King Fahad’s phoppa was British. He ain’t a good wahabi
Recommend
After reading all these comments, I want to burn all papers that identify me as a Pakistani. I am ashamed to be a citizen of the same country as all these bloodthirsty, petty, intellectual midgets. If you are allowed to continue on your ignorant path, you will put Hitler to shame.
Recommend
@SMJ:
forget king fahad sunni world is now being led by tayyip erdogan and king abdullah al hashmi of trans jordan now just look as mainly baloch forces of bahrain have crushed your bones in bahrain and can repeat performance at hazara of quetta
Recommend
@Abullah
Why are you so nervous and insecure? Relax.
There are several areas of Punjab where Shia are in majority, that’s common knowledge. Look at Jhang, Bhakhar etc. Pakistan has more Shia than Iraq, thats around 30 million people. They dont live on the sky they live on the ground, so having a lakh Shia in a single place isnt surprising As for your claim that the Shia have a lower birthrate, considering my grandparents had 12 children I beg to differ. Syeds in particular have always been known to have lotsa children. The reason Shia have a lower birthrate that Sunnis in the middle east is because in Iraq and Iran they are more educated and have a higher standard of living compared to Sunnis. Plus in Iran the government urges people to have less kids since overpopulation damages the economy. But here in the sub continent the Shia are desi and poor and they like everyone else in south asia consider children security and power.Recommend
@abdullah
Also realize that in 1941 there were roughly more than 10% non-muslims in Pakistan, mainly Hindus and Sikhs. They almost all left during the partition. And the partition also resulted in many Shia mass migrating into Pakistan. Entire familes left India and settled in Punjab and Sindh. Take way 10% out of 100% and the relative percentages of the remaining will increaes. The relative percentages of both Sunnis and Shia increased post partition. Also most Shia I know are descendants of migrants from India. We came here because we believed in a homeland for Muslims. The majority has let us down. We were fools to think you could rise above your sectarian bias for the greater good of all muslims.
Recommend
@abdullah
As for you putting your hopes in Turkey, well you guys first considered the Arab kings the ones to bring back your glory days, they sold you out. Next you thought gadaffi would bring back your glory daysi, he went crazy with power. Next you thought Saddam would bring back your golden age, he went and bit of more than he could chew. Next it was the Taliban. Now its Turkey. For each of them you people said similar things. You worshippers of the rising sun
And as for claiming you would give me better rights than Kurds and Baluch in Iran. Put that aside and first tell me whether you would give me more rights than your heroes, the Sunni Turks give to their Sunni Kurds? Would you treat me better than the Gulf Arabs treat muslim Pakistanis? Would you treat me better than our mainly Sunni Pakistan army treats the Sunni Baluch? You want to see oppression of Baluchis look no farther than Pakistan. Look at your own home first before pointing out fires in other’s. You want to blame someone for the world’s problems look in a mirrorRecommend
@Noise:
Glad your comments are getting through at least in reply.
Unfortunately mine aren’t, which is sad as abd’s inexplicably are. I had some serious words for such a regressive personality.
Recommend
@bigsaf:
good job mr biqsaf u got my replies blocked just look whats happening in dera ismail khan
Recommend