Month of Mourning: Muharram not being observed properly: Shia group
The Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqh-i-Jafria (TNFJ, or Movement for the Enforcement of Jafria Jurispudence) has demanded that school exams be rescheduled and television and radio stations stop airing music or entertainment programmes during the first 10 days of Muharram.
TNFJ leader Agha Hassan Moosvi has come up with a code of conduct for Muharram and the government should enforce it to ensure peace during the holy month, said TNFJ Punjab President Agha Syed Hasan Muqaddasi at a press conference on Thursday.
Elaborating on this code of conduct, Muqaddasi said that the Punjab government should set up an ‘Azadari cell’ in the Home Department to address the issues of Shia mourners during Muharram. TV and radio stations should only air shows relevant to Muharram during the first 10 days of the month, and stop all broadcasts of entertainment and music. Schools must ensure that no exams are scheduled for the first 10 days so young people can participate in religious ceremonies. There must be no load-shedding during this period. All political parties and religious groups must freeze their political activities.
Muqaddasi said that the code included several measures for better security. At the end of processions, instead of everyone leaving at once, participants should leave in groups at staggered intervals. He said that Shia prisoners in Faisalabad Jail were not being allowed to perform their religious rites and this was discrimination. He condemned the attack on Shias in Karachi on the first of Muharram, as well as the Nato attack in Mohmand Agency. TNFJ district president Ghulam Hassan Bhatti, speaking to The Tribune, said that the government must stop inviting banned outfits to meetings between officials and religious leaders that are held before Muharram each year.
“They should not be invited alongside legitimate groups like ours. Either lift the ban or enforce it,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2011.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ