Friday, February 26, 2010

Most Pakistani Leaders are Polygamists

ISLAMABAD: The Minister of State for Ports and Shipping, Nabil Gabol, stunned the National Assembly on Thursday when he claimed that 80 per cent members of the house had more than one wife.

He said: “It should be left for Ulema to issue a decree whether anyone can have more than one wife or not”.

Interestingly, he was responding to a statement of his own party’s former information minister, Sherry Rahman, who contended that a man was not allowed to enter into second wedlock without permission from his first wife.

The surprising aspect of Mr Gabol’s claim was that no member in a thinly attended house, including any of the ministers, chose to deny or confirm his assertion.

Maulana Abdul Malik, a member from Fata, however supported Mr Gabol’s stance on polygamy by reciting a verse from Holy Quran: “Faithful are allowed to wed twice, thrice or four times provided they can maintain justice between wives.”

Ms Sherry referred to a recent statement of PML-Q’s women MPA in the Punjab Assembly in which she claimed that a Muslim man can have more than one wife without getting permission from his first wife.

She expressed her concern over the silence of the Punjab government as well as the federal government over the issue.

She said the Jamiah Al Azhar of Egypt had issued a decree (fatwa) that no one was allowed to indulge into polygamy under the prevailing circumstances.

From here.

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