The Hindu : International : Pakistan paragliding Minister quits party post

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 03, 2007
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Pakistan paragliding Minister quits party post

Nirupama Subramanian

Nilofer Bakhtiar

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League has accepted the resignation of Nilofer Bakhtiar, Pakistani Minister who annoyed a hardline cleric by hugging her paragliding instructor after a jump in France, as head of the party women's wing.

The Tourism Minister refused to say if her resignation from the party post was a fall-out of the fatwa against her by Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the cleric who runs the controversial Jamia Hafsa women's madrassa in the capital.

"This question should be answered by the party. I have done what was desired," she told The Hindu , but added that it would give her more time to focus on her duties as the Tourism Ministry, which kept her "very busy".

Following the publication of photographs showing Ms. Bakhtiar hugging her paragliding instructor after a jump, Mr. Ghazi pronounced that the Minister had committed an "obscene" act, and demanded her dismissal.

The ruling party president, Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, was negotiating with Mr. Ghazi to end a crisis that began with the Jamia Hafsa's forcible occupation of a public library to protest the bulldozing of seven illegal mosques by the capital's administration.

The madrassa students, led by Mr. Ghazi, also demanded that the Government implement the Sharia, or else threatened to begin enforcing it themselves. Showing they meant business, they launched a "qazi court" in the neighbouring Lal Masjid mosque, from where the fatwa against Ms. Bakhtiar went out.

After weeks of negotiations with Mr. Ghazi to resolve the Jamia Hafsa issue, the ruling party president said earlier this week that all issues between the Government and the madrassa had been resolved.

The bulldozed mosques are to be reconstructed on alternate sites. Mr. Hussein also said "no Muslim would reject the enforcement of the Islamic system in the country".

While what that means was not immediately clear, Ms. Bakhtiar's resignation from her party post followed soon after. Several other office-bearers of the PML (Q) women's wing have resigned in solidarity with her.

"I only want to say that I am grateful to all the women in my party who have shown their support to me," Ms. Bakhtiar said.

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