Communal wedding ceremony in Swat

Marriage ceremony of 35 couples held, first Pak-Army initiative to organise collective ceremony in troubled Swat.

SWAT: A grand marriage ceremony of 35 couples was held by the Labaik Foundation and the Pakistan Army in Tehsil Charbagh, Swat. This is the first time an initiative was taken by the Pak-Army to organise a collective wedding ceremony in the insurgency-hit and flood affected areas of Swat.

The wedding ceremony was celebrated with a lot of fervour and enthusiasm. Army personnel and family members of the bride and groom attended the ceremony.

Obaidullah, a bridegroom belonging to the Manglawar area, told The Express Tribune, “Today is the happiest day of my life. I don’t have words to express how thankful I am to the Labaik Foundation and Pak-Army for arranging my wedding given inflation and the difficulty in making both ends meet.”

Kareem Khan, another bridegroom whose face shone with happiness, told The Express Tribune, “I am really grateful to the Pak-Army for thinking about the poor and completing the arrangements of my marriage.”

Sitting in the wedding ceremony, a jubilant bride said, “My happiness knows no bounds on this occasion. We are very poor and have nothing, but the Labaik Foundation helped us and organised our marriage, gave me dowry and covered the costs for everything.”

On this occasion of happiness and colours, Brigadier Hamayun told The Express Tribune, “The Army tries to constantly help the people of Swat. We are constructing houses for the flood affected and are also busy in the rehabilitation of many schools in the area.”

“The army is extending full support to the people. There are a lot of people here who are very poor and have no resources to fund their weddings. The financial condition of these people is very fragile. We have to assist them in whatever way we can. With the grace of Almighty, Labaik foundation and Pak-Army took this initiative,” Hamayun said.

The Brigadier said this was not the last programme of this sort, with many more planned for the future.

Every couple was given money as salami (money that is give to the bride and groom on their wedding day), as well as dowry in which several necessary items were included to run a new house. “We are thankful to everyone who has helped us start our new lives, if it wasn’t for them, I don’t think we would have had the money to get married,” Samina Fazal said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2010.