A countrywide protest day was observed in Pakistan on Friday against the knighthood awarded to Salman Rushdie by the British government.
ISLAMABAD: A countrywide protest day was observed in Pakistan on Friday against the knighthood awarded to Salman Rushdie by the British government, with the Pakistani National Assembly unanimously adopting a resolution on Friday, asking the Blair government to immediately withdraw the knighthood which has hurt the feelings of the entire Muslim community.
The protest day was observed on the call of the six-party religious alliance called Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal after the Friday prayers. A big protest demonstration was organised in Islamabad outside the National Assembly building which was addressed by the MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazaulr Rehman who is also the leader of the opposition in the lower house of parliament.
Addressing the demonstrators, he said Salman Rushdie being the author of a blasphemous book about Prophet Mohammad is hated by Muslims across the globe and the British government’s decision to award him knighthood has badly hurt their feeling and sentiments.
He said that the MMA leadership was persuading the Muslim parliamentarian in Great Britain to move a resolution in their parliament to condemn the award of knighthood.
Similar protest rallies were taken in almost all the major Pakistani cities by the MMA supports after the Friday prayers, especially in the four provincial capitals — Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.
The Karachi rally was addressed by the deputy secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, while the Lahore rally was addressed by the Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed.
The Quetta and the Peshawar rallies were addressed by the leaders of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). The speakers were unanimous in their demand that the British government should respect the sentiments of Muslims across the world and immediately withdraw knighthood — a demand which the British government has already rejected.
Earlier in the morning, the National Assembly of Pakistan demanded of the Blair government afresh to withdraw the knighthood conferred on Rushdie. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afghan put the consensus resolution that was unanimously adopted inclusive of the Christian minority members and those belonging to other religions.
“This House, in reference to its previous resolution, resolves that the British Government and the British Prime Minister has not only disappointed the Pakistani nation but also has hurt its sentiments, by not withdrawing the knighthood title from Rushdie”, the resolution stated as read out by Dr Niazi on the floor of the House.
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