DASKA: Over 15 couples were wed in a mass marriage ceremony in Daska on Tuesday.
The wedding ceremony took place under the auspices of the ‘Young Blood Foundation’, an NGO that works towards arranging dowries for poor women and arranges wedding ceremonies for those that cannot afford them.
“This is the fourth mass wedding that has taken place under our banner and we are extremely grateful to dozens of philanthropists who have helped us make wedding arrangements and organised dowries for these women,” said Young Blood Foundation (YBF) president Tanveer Ahmad Mughal.
“Our greatest asset is the philanthropists from all over Punjab who regularly contribute to dowries of destitute women and help us with arrangements,” Mughal said. “Given the cause the caterers for the event and some of the other service providers also helped us make arrangements at reduced costs,” he said.
Three Christian and 12 Muslim couples tied the knot in the mass wedding ceremony. Tight security arrangements were made for the occasion and the organisers from the YBF said that they had been working hard to organise the event. “It took months to make all the arrangements and ensure that each couple received ‘salaami’ and that each bride had a dowry,” said an YBF volunteer, adding that each couple was allowed nearly 50 guests. “This meant that the crowd was huge given the number of couples and the fact that we usually received more people than we expected,” he said.
The couples married in the ceremony include Mafia Ashiq and Muhammad Azam, Mafia Manzur and Naseer Ahmad, Mariyam Manzur and Muhammad Kabeer, Misbah Aslam and Abid Hussain, Tasneem Sarwar and Muhammad Asghar, Tahira Ghulam Rasul and Muhammad Naseer, Faiza Mushtaq and Adnan Ali, Saira Mushtaq and Rizwan Ali, Samia Rafiq and Tanzeel Ashraf, Tehmeena Majeed and Muhammad Aamir, Talha Nawaz and Liaqat Ali, Shamaila Afzal and Muhammad Aamir, Adeela Niyamat Maseeh and Amanat Maseeh, Chanda Arif Maseeh and Afzaal Maseeh, Aleena Maseeh and Imran Maseeh tied their knots.
Local Muslim and Christian religious leaders attended the wedding ceremonies of the Muslim and Christian couples. The clerics blessed the couples and four Muslim clerics performed the nikaah ceremony of the Muslims while one priest was called in to perform the wedding ceremony for the Christian couples.
A larger number of the people including journalists, traders, industrialists, philanthropists, social activists, senior police officials, local politicians and human rights activists attended the ceremony and distributed gifts among the newly wed couples, besides blessing them with a happy married life. YBF chairman Bashir Ahmad Naz, president Tanveer Ahmad Mughal and general secretary Haji Zahid Jehangir were also present on this occasion.
Naz said that he was proud of the organisations efforts given that they had been involved at each stage. “In some cases the couples were introduced by YBF social workers and everything from arranging the match to the final wedding ceremony has been carried out by the NGO,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 6th, 2010.
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