Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Muslim men supporting rights of muslim women
Thursday, October 20, 2011
NEWS
Haj without permits unlawful: Mufti
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn Abdullah Al-Asheikh
Published: Oct 19, 2011 23:21 Updated: Oct 19, 2011 23:21
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia sought to discourage Saudis and expatriates from performing pilgrimage this year without valid Haj permits with an intensified public awareness campaign through the media.
The country’s grand mufti also said it was unlawful to do Haj without permits. “Helping pilgrims to enter the holy sites without Haj permits goes against the law and the ruler, and those who perform Haj without permits are doing an unlawful thing,” Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh said in a statement distributed by the Makkah governorate.
The mufti also spoke against the practice of squatting in public places by pilgrims, saying such practice would reduce their rewards as they cause problems to the Kingdom’s Haj managers and fellow pilgrims by obstructing walkways.
Sheikh Abdul Aziz said it was the duty of Muslims to ensure the safety of pilgrims and support the measures taken by the government for the purpose. “The government did not introduce the Haj permit system without any purpose but to reduce overcrowding during the pilgrimage,” he pointed out.
Muhammad Badahdah, assistant secretary-general of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), supported the Haj permit system. He said it was essential not only to control the crowd but also to plan for necessary services. Currently unpredictable number of pilgrims are performing Haj from within the Kingdom.
“The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has set out a system that every country can send 1,000 pilgrims for each million of its population. But the number of people going for Haj from the Kingdom is way beyond its quota, and this causes a lot of problem for Saudi Haj managers,” Badahdah told Arab News.
He said the provision of allowing Saudis and expatriates to perform Haj after every five years is good. “Expatriate workers going for Haj should know that their number is not included in the quota of their respective countries and should not misuse the facility,” he added.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Talk to, not at, Pakistan By Asif Ali Zardari,
Published: October 1
Democracy always favors dialogue over confrontation. So, too, in Pakistan, where the terrorists who threaten both our country and the United States have gained the most from the recent verbal assaults some in America have made against Pakistan. This strategy is damaging the relationship between Pakistan and the United States and compromising common goals in defeating terrorism, extremism and fanaticism.
It is time for the rhetoric to cool and for serious dialogue between allies to resume.
Pakistan sits on many critical fault lines. Terrorism is not a statistic for us. Our geopolitical location forces us to look to a future where the great global wars will be fought on the battleground of ideas. From the Middle East to South Asia, a hurricane of change is transforming closed societies into marketplaces of competing narratives. The contest between the incendiary politics of extremism and the slow burn of modern democracy is already being fought in every village filled with cellphones, in every schoolroom, on every television talk show. It is a battle that moderation must win.
Our motives are simple. We have a huge population of young people who have few choices in life. Our task is to turn this demographic challenge into a dividend for democracy and pluralism, where the embrace of tolerance elbows out the lure of extremism, where jobs turn desolation into opportunity and empowerment, where plowshares take the place of guns, where women and minorities have a meaningful place in society.
None of this vision for a new Pakistan is premised on the politics of victimhood. It pivots on a worldview where we fight the war against extremism and terrorism as our battle, at every precinct and until the last person, even though we lack the resources to match our commitment. When Pakistan seeks support, we look for trade that will make us sustainable, not aid that will bind us in transactional ties. When we commit to a partnership against terrorism, we do it in the hope that our joint goals will be addressed. When we add our shoulder to the battle, we look for outcomes that leave us stronger.
Yet as Pakistan is pounded by the ravages of globally driven climate change, with floods once again making millions of our citizens homeless, we find that, instead of a dialogue with our closest strategic ally, we are spoken to instead of being heard. We are being battered by nature and by our friends. This has shocked a nation that is bearing the brunt of the terrorist whirlwind in the region. And why?
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the world’s most powerful democracy compromised its fundamental values to accommodate a dictator in Pakistan. Since then we have lost 30,000 innocent civilians and 5,000 military and police officers to the militant mind-set that the U.S. government is now charging that we support. We have suffered more than 300 suicide bomb attacks by the forces that allegedly find sanctuary within our borders. We have hemorrhaged approximately $100 billion directly in the war effort and tens of billions more in lost foreign investment. The war is being fought in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, yet Washington has invested almost nothing on our side of the border and hundreds of billions of dollars on the other side.
We fight an ideology that feeds on brutality and coercion that has taken the lives of our minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, and Gov. Salman Taseer, among thousands of others. And we have seen our greatest leader, the mother of my children, assassinated by a conspiracy that was powered by the same mind-set we are now accused of tolerating.
Both our nations need to learn from history. South and Central Asia is a region of complexity and nuance where mistakes repeat dangerously and where many empires have floundered. In the 10 years that NATO has been in the neighborhood, it has not even attempted to choke the world’s largest production of narcotic contraband that funds terrorist activity. Yet we struggle to hold the line against the tidal wave of extremism that surges into Pakistan each day from internationally controlled areas of Afghanistan. While we are accused of harboring extremism, the United States is engaged in outreach and negotiations with the very same groups.
The Pakistani street is thick with questions. My people ask, Is our blood so cheap? Are the lives of our children worthless? Must we fight alone in our region all those that others now seek to embrace? And how long can we degrade our capacity by fighting an enemy that the might of the NATO global coalition has failed to eliminate?
As the United States plans to remove its ground forces from Afghanistan and once again leave our region, we are attempting to prepare for post-withdrawal realities. The international community abandoned Central and South Asia a generation ago, triggering the catastrophe that we now find ourselves in. Whoever comes or goes, it is our coming generation that will face the firestorm. We have to live in the neighborhood. So why is it unreasonable for us to be concerned about the immediate and long-term situation of our Western border? History will not forgive us if we don’t take responsibility.
Where do the United States and Pakistan go from here? We are partners in a world where broadcasts and bombs know no borders. We fight a common menace. We share the same democratic values and dreams for a moderate, modern, pluralistic, democratic South and Central Asia. We jointly appreciate that trade, job creation and manufacturing will dry up conscripts for the extremist banner, yet we never saw Congress approve the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones that were meant to secure vulnerable livelihoods. We are on convergent policy tracks, but our rhetoric has split us onto divergent roads.
The recent accusations against us have been a serious setback to the war effort and our joint strategic interests. It is not as if Pakistanis will stop reclaiming our terrain, inch by inch, from the extremists, even without the United States. We are a tenacious people. We will not allow religion to become the trigger for terrorism or persecution.
But when we don’t strategize together, and when an ally is informed instead of consulted, we both suffer. The sooner we stop shooting verbal arrows at each other and coordinate our resources against the advancing flag of fanaticism, the sooner we can restore stability to the land for which so much of humanity continues to sacrifice.
The writer is president of Pakistan.
Kind regards,
High Commission for Pakistan
182 Onslow Road, Khandallah
Wellington, New Zealand
Tel. +64 4 4790026
Fax. +64 4 4794315
Monday, October 3, 2011
RESOLUTION, Game On.
RESOLUTION
OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE LEADERS OF ALL THE POLITICAL PARTIES
ISLAMABAD, SEPTEMBER, 29, 2011
On the invitation of Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, the leaders of Pakistan’s political parties met in Islamabad on September 29, 2011, to consider issues relating to national security.
2. The conference was briefed by Foreign Minister Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar and Director General ISI, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha on the security environment of the country and the regional situation.
3. After in-depth deliberations, leaders of all political parties unanimously resolved, as follows:
i. As a peace-loving country, Pakistan desires to establish and maintain friendly and cordial relations with all countries of the world on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual interest and respect.
ii. All parties Conference recognized that there has to be a new direction and policy with a focus on peace and reconciliation. “Give peace a chance” must be the guiding central principle henceforth.
iii. Pakistan must initiate dialogue with a view to negotiate peace with our own people in the tribal areas and a proper mechanism for this be put in place.
iv. We need to further enhance our brotherly bilateral relations with Afghanistan at three levels on priority basis: government to government, institution to institution and people to people.
v. The APC recognized the sacrifices of the people and the Security Forces of Pakistan, especially the people of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and tribal areas. The international community needs to recognize these tremendous sacrifices as well as the colossal magnitude of destruction in Pakistan.
vi. Pakistan can enhance its self-reliance comprehensively.. Trade, not aid, should clearly be the way forward. We should also focus on internal economic and tax reforms as well as resource mobilization and the curbing of corruption.
vii. Defence of Pakistan’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity is a sacred duty which shall never be compromised.
viii. National interests are supreme and shall guide Pakistan’s policy and response to all challenges at all times.
ix. Pakistan shall continue to endeavour to promote stability and peace at the regional and global planes, in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law.
x. All earlier unanimous resolutions of the Parliament, the recommendation of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on National Security must be implemented.
xi. APC rejected the recent assertions and baseless allegations made against Pakistan. Such assertions are without substance and derogatory to the partnership approach.
xii. The Pakistani nation affirms its full solidarity and support for the armed forces of Pakistan in defeating any threat to national security.
xiii. A Parliamentary Committee be formed to oversee the implementation of earlier resolutions as well as this Resolution and progress on the same be made public on monthly basis.
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High Commission for Pakistan
182 Onslow Road, Khandallah
Wellington, New Zealand
Tel. +64 4 4790026
Fax. +64 4 4794315
Dr Ashraf Choudhary’s valedictory speech
Below is a link to Dr Ashraf Choudhary’s valedictory speech which he presented to Parliament on Thursday 29th September 2011. Please take some time out to watch Dr Choudhary’s last address to the New Zealand Parliament.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3y3Y3W6bYk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U84jb5_ook
Regards
Alamgir Afridi | Issues Assistant
Two Months Until Election Day
It is your effort that will enable us to win Te Atatu for Labour. We will win because we are talking about the issues that really matter to Te Atatu residents. Not a day goes by when I don't see how our message hits home with Te Atatu residents, on the door step, at the shop, or even while putting up hoardings.
Te Atatu residents are worried about the stagnating wages and economy, the increasing cost of living, the increasing lack of opportunity for our children and a need for jobs.
We are campaigning on an optimistic message that there is an alternative to low wages and high costs. There is an alternative to foreign ownership and asset sales. There is a future for our kids that is bright and hopeful.
There is a lot of effort going into taking this message to Te Atatu residents, and I want to thank you for the hard work and all the support.
So please come along and join us at our campaign get-together. We are going to celebrate our achievements so far, and enjoy an hour or two with fellow Labour supporters as we gear up for a busy last two months of the campaign.
2-4pm Saturday 8 October
Lions’ White House
Behind the Ambulance Station
247 Edmonton Rd
Te Atatu South
Bring a plate and something to drink