Rally against flogging of girl

Sunday, April 05, 2009
By Our Correspondent
LAHORE

THE Minhajul Quran Women League (MQWL) staged a demonstration outside the Lahore Press Club on Saturday to condemn the flogging of a girl in Swat and demanded strict action against those involved in the incident.
The demonstrators were led by MQWL President Fatima Mashadi. They were holding banners and placards and raising slogans against the extremists in the garb of Taliban, who were maligning Islam and Pakistan.
Addressing the protestors, Fatima Mashadi said those who flogged the girl were not following Islam and they had brought a bad name to the religion and the country.
She demanded that incidents like flogging and torture of women should be brought to an end.
Sumaira Rafaqat said Islam gave such respect to women, which the modern day western society could not provide and those involved in the Swat incident were maligning Islam. She demanded action against the culprits.
Meanwhile, the Women Wing of the Pakistan People’s Party, Lahore, on Saturday condemned the flogging of 17-year-old girl in Swat, terming it a shameful incident which had infuriated the whole nation.
In a joint statement, the Pakistan Peoples Party leaders, including MPA Sajida Mir and the party president of PP-143 Talat Bangash, said the perpetrators of the heinous act had nothing to do with Islam.
They said even the local people of Swat had condemned the incident.
They said Islam had always honoured woman and granted equal rights to her whereas the public flogging of a girl over personal enmity was shameful.
The Pakistan Peoples Party leaders said the present government was making efforts to ensure peace and stability in the country and the ceasefire between the militants and the security forces in the insurgency-hit areas proved this.
They said such incidents were meant to sabotage peace by provoking the nation against tribal people who could never support any such act. They demanded stern action against those responsible.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has condemned the flogging of a 17-year-old girl in Swat and praised Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for taking suo moto notice of the incident.
According to a press release issued here, the PTI chief said that this brutal incident had nothing to do with Islam or Shariah. He said the authenticity of the video also needed to be checked.
He said that it was praiseworthy that people, including the Taliban in Swat, had also condemned the incident.
Imran said it was unfortunate that some people drew conclusions about Islam from such gory and brutal incidents whereas millions were brutalized in Afghanistan and Iraq by coalition forces from democratic countries under the false pretext of safeguarding human liberty and freedom.
He said lashing had no link to Islam but was a brutal and violent act carried out by some individuals against a helpless woman.
Imran said that it was all the more important that the deal between the people of Swat and the government should be finalized to bring law and order to Swat.
He warned that if such an incident was allowed to sabotage and derail the peace process “we would be playing in the hands of international conspirators who cannot accept Pakistan struggling back to normalcy after people’s victory in the struggle for the restoration of judiciary”.

 

Source:http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=170933