APCL launched in Islamabad

A new political party has been launched by  Professor Salamat Khokhar and Denmark based lawyer Nawaz Salamat.
Professor Salamat is a well known and respected individual of the Christian community in Pakistan and is the founding chairperson of the All Pakistan Christian League (APCL) whereas Nawaz Salamat has been appointed as the Co-chairman of the party meant to be the only Christian political party.

Professor Akhtar said “APCL will be the first representative party in Pakistan purely for Christians since 1972”. 

The party's manifesto is based on Quaid-e-Azam's vision of equality for all citizens of Pakistan.

The party’s agenda is ensuring unity and well-being of the Christian community, education for all, repeal discriminatory laws, integrity and well being of Christian women, youth, farmers and labourers. The party will also strive for democracy and right of double vote for non-Muslims, shelter to homeless Christians, accurate census of Christians community and one-fourth share in federal as well as provincial services.

The website of APCL is underway to interact with the party and will welcome suggestions for better functioning of the party. The party hopes to complete legal formalities soon.

Nazim Sajjad has been nominated as president of APCL Islamabad chapter, 

Zeeshan Joseph as president of Punjab chapter, 

James Allah Ditta, president Rawalpindi chapter, 

Hubert George, president for US chapter,  

Chaudhry Yousuf Akhtar, president for Germany chapter.

The flag of the newly formed party is described as:The importance of our flag.

The bright star in the white portion of the flag represents Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior Who is the bright star of the line of David a Great Prophet and King.The scientists are of the view the Crescent has no light at all therefore it is the light of our star that generates Prosperity in Pakistan. The white part signifies peace and Justice. It also stands for Minorities.
 A very important message of the white part of our flag is Equality. It means that we are equal citizens of our motherland and nobody is superior to us in Pakistan.

The idea of Pakistan was depending on Equality but a very sad fact is that we are never treated as equal citizen therefore we will continue our struggle for equal rights in Pakistan. 

Nawaz Salamat has been networking aggressively on Facebook to interact and connect to Pakistani Christians around the globe receiving praises and many times criticism, however unable to conquer his enthusiasm and spirit to move forward and lay the foundation stone for a new beginning.

Clerics refuse to remove 'Jihad verses' from school curriculum

A group of clerics attacked a government school breaking windows and later protested against the suggested removal of Quranic verses pertaining to jihad from the school curriculum, resulting in two students injuried after glass fell on them according to a school administrator, 

16 clerics in Rahim Yar Khan protested on Monday afternoon against the proposed removal of the verses.
“If the Education Board thinks that it can educate our children by denying them proper knowledge of all aspects of the Quran they are mistaken,” said Mufti Allahbukhsh Khan. 

“This is outrageous. How can they protest by attacking a school? What do primary school children have to do with the Education Board’s decision to change the syllabus?” said Government Primary School for Girl’s, Chak 16-SG administrator Nazish Waqar.
The clerics warned that if any verses were removed from the curriculum then all religious and political parties would launch a joint campaign against the government.


“The government is conspiring against jihad. We will not allow this,” said a statement from  Sunni Ittehad Council leaders Sahibzada Fazle Karim, Haji Hanif Tayyab, Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadri, Sarwat Ijaz Qadri, Pir Syed Mahfooz Mashhadi, Pir Syed Safdar Shah Gilani and others.

“The government is trying to appease its foreign masters. Former president Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf also tried to exclude jihadi verses from the curriculum, but we did not let it happen.”
Jamatud Dawa leaders including Professor Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Maulana Ameer Hamza, Hafiz Talha Saeed, Hafiz Abdul Ghafar Ropri and Hafiz Khalid Waleed said that the government was trying to convert Pakistan into a secular state.Madaris Rabta Committee president and Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) district president Qazi Kahlilur Rehman said that they would resist any move to turn the country into a secular state.

Will Pakistan progress or will they drag us into the stone age ?
Is it so important to force hatred into innocent minds ?

Blasphemy accused in Karachi seeks security

The Blasphemy law has been twisted and misused again in a case in Karachi by a religious group.

This time the victim is Noel Gulzar, a Christian youth who said that some religious extremists have threatened to kill him over a fabricated blasphemy allegation. He demanded the government to provide him protection.

While talking to journalists at the Sindh High Court’s cafeteria Noel informed further saying a few months ago he got a shop at Meccasa Shopping Centre, near Essa Nagri on rent to start his own business of ‘books and stationery’. One day while cleaning his shop's exterior he noticed near the garbage some papers burnt outside the shop.

On the same day some unidentified people came to his shop and they alleged that ‘he has committed blasphemy because of garbage burning, as it was the Holy Quran and some pages of the Hadith’.

Noel escaped from the scene and tried to approach the PIB Colony police station to register a complaint of the incident but unfortunately as he reached the the police station the group accusing him was present there, he said.

Noel said that later he sent a complaint to the SHO PIB Colony through courier service. He also demanded of the Sindh governor, Chief minister, inspector general of police and CCPO Karachi to provide him protection.

MPA Saleem Khursheed Khokhar, while talking to Daily Times on the issue, said that Gulzar had come to him. He said: “It is the badness of our society that some opportunists are using the religion for their wasted interests and a common man is facing trouble.”

Another case of business rivalry ? We hope someone from Karachi can update us further.

Source: Daily Times

False FIR in Christian Hospital Taxila

The Christian Hospital in Taxila recently avoided communal clash motivated by a person named Nur Mohammad with his sons Malik Riaz and Malik Abdul Razzak by registering fabricated cases among some hospital staff and having many Christian staff arrested also.

Leaders of the Christian community intervened and proved that the FIR was false, a blasphemy case was also planned but not egistered and did not go further. It is being reported that Pakistan's agencies acted swiftly and controlled the situation.


The motive is said to be land mafia who along with a contractor had been after this property for quite some time.

At present the Hospital is closed for security reasons.

Congregation bids farewell to retired Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore

A thanksgiving mass was held for retired Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore which was attended by hundreds of Catholic clergy and laypeople; and all the diocese’s 58 priests at Lahore’s Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Archbishop Saldanha retired on April 7 this year, after heading Lahore archdiocese for almost 10 years. The speakers at the mass paid tribute to the retired prelate who “strongly supported inter-religious harmony and dialogue during a decade of the ‘war on terror’.” They recalled major instances of Christian persecution, all in Punjab province, under his tenure of office, including the assassination of Catholic federal minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti on March 2, this year.

Born: Lawrence John Saldanha in Mangalore, India on 12 Jun 1936.
Religious training: Christ the King seminary in Karachi and was ordained a priest in Lahore, Pakistan on 16 Jan 1960.
He also earned a doctorate in systematic theology from Rome-based Pontifical Urbaniana University. He participated in the Second Vatican Council.

Career:
- He served in different parishes in Lahore and was secretary of Caritas Pakistan 1966-73.
- He served 1971-74 as editor of the Catholic Naqib, the Archdiocese’s Urdu bimonthly.
- He was also rector of Christ the King Seminary in Karachi from 1974–1979 and taught dogmatic theology there until 1983.

- From 1986-98 he was head of the social communications commission and WAVE Studio, the Church's national audiovisual center in Lahore.
- He also headed the UCA News bureau in Pakistan.
- President of the Federation of Asian Bishop’s Conference
- Chairmanship of Radio Veritas.

- He was serving as associate pastor of Precious Blood Church in Toronto, Canada, when he was recalled to serve the Church in Pakistan.
- On 24 Apr 2001 he was appointed Archbishop of Lahore by Pope John Paul II.
- He is the Leader of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan.

- On 16 January 2010, Archbishop Saldanha celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a priest, of serving his church for 50 years.

- On 7 April 2011 Archbishop Saldanha retired as Archbishop of Lahore

Hector Aleem & two others freed from blasphemy case

According to a report by The Express Tribune, 3 Christians were acquitted in a blasphemy case last Thursday and this news has been confirmed by Hector's blog which is managed by his daughter Mehvish.
A Rawalpindi court acquitted three members of the Christian community as the prosecutor failed to prove the case against them. An Additional District and Sessions Judge Sarfraz Akhtar absolved Hector Haleem, Basharat Maseeh and Robin Maseeh from the charges of sending blasphemous text messages.

 A Ghufran Sialvi had registered the case against him last year.
The court also ordered criminal action against the investigation officer and the complainant after they could not prove the charges against the accused.
Aleem's daughter Mehvish posted online petitions and posts asking for support of her father's release. The 55 years old Aleem heads an NGO called Peace Worldwide. Peace award by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Yousaf Raza Gillani 
Details of his accusation are posted here, an account of the incident by his daughter.

Below is a Urdu newspapers article taken from Aleem's blog that is translated by Mewish.

Here is the TRANSLATION:

"Additional District and Session Judge Mr. Sarfaraz Akhter took a strict notice on those who lodged a false blasphemy case. He ordered the CPO Rawalpinidi to investigate about the case and also ordered to take a strict action against those who gave false testimonies i.e. Sub - Inspector Zafar Iqbal, Mir Abdullah, Riaz, Constable Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Akram, and the complainant Tahir Iqbal Chisti. He ordered to take severe action on them and also ordered strictly to the Secretary Prosecution Punjab to take action on District Public Prosecution who passed the Challan of this false and poor investigation case. The lawyer of the accused Hector Aleem and others Mr. Ghufran Khurshid Imtiazi provided the Court Orders to the CPO to take action. A case of Disrespecting the accused will also be lodged. Court dropped the Charges on three of the Accused."

Now here its written that a case of disrespecting the accused will be lodged against the complainants but we wont do it.......because we want to get rid of this court procedure as soon as possible and we wont be going to any court to lodge any case on anyone.

GOJRA burnt again

Images of black smoke are still fresh in our minds, the grief for our Christian brothers and sisters who died in Gojra is still painful to even imagine; the horrendous murder of chilldren and women is unforgotten. 
Christians have been waiting impatiently to seek justice for one of the most barbaric acts against minorities in Pakistan; but once again Pakistan's legal system has failed with the release of 70 suspects.
A special Anti-Terrorism court in Faisalabad released on bail all 70 suspects arrested responsible for the brutal attack in Gojra citing the reason as absence of five witnesses who are not in the country, who may have fled due to threats of extremists, which clearly reflects the security provided by law enforcement agencies to witnesses. During the inquiry, 185 witnesses gave their written statements, however it is being reported five witnesses had already left the country. A case under section-7 of the Anti Terrorism Act was registered against the suspects, but none of the accused were convicted.


The black day mourned by Christians in Pakistan is July 31 2009 when Christian Colony including the area called Korian, was set ablaze resulting in the deaths of eight Christians when 60 houses were also set on fire. The attacks were insitigated by a false complaint received by a mosque that a Christian had committed blasphemy at a wedding ceremony in a nearby village. As tensions escalated over the accusation, a mob was gathered in Gojra by local clerics who used speakers of mosques to attack Christians with assistance of a banned extermist group.
All roads leading to the neighbourhood were blocked, Police, ambulances and fire-brigades were not allowed to enter in order to save the victims and a chemical was thrown on all houses that would not extinguish flames  with water and caused immense damage by rapidly burning. 
More than 100 houses were looted consisting of cattle, bikes, electronics and valuables; during this attack and upto 2 Churches were ransacked desecrating religious books.


For almost 2 years newspapers have reported arrests and inquiries resulting in nothing but disappointment and a mockery of Pakistan's Justice system. 
It seems as if they've burnt Gojra again.