Ajmer dargah gets Zardari's $1 million

August 18, 2012
Zardari_copy

Ajmer, August 18: It was a thriller till the end. The long-awaited distribution of the promised $1 million to the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti by Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari finally came to fruition on Friday but not without its share of drama.

A long three-hour-long, marathon closed-door meeting between delegates from the Pakistan high commission, members of Anjuman Syed Zadgan, members of Anjuman Yadgar and those of the Dargah Committee resolved what an elaborate ceremony planned earlier in the evening could not.

Now, Rs 3 crore will be given to the Anjuman Syed Zadgan, Rs 1 crore to the Anjuman Yadgar, and Rs 1 crore 47,48,905 to the Dargah committee.

"I am happy that the matter has been finally resolved," said a much relived Pakistan High Commissioner Salman Bashir.

"We talked in detail and reached a conclusion," said Syed Wahid Angara, secretary of Anjuman Syed Zadgan.

Closed-door meeting breaks dargah deadlock

But when officials from high commission disclosed that if the money is not delivered this time then the budget will lapse and it will be difficult to pass another budget for the announcement of President Zardari, matters began to be resolved.

The Anjuman Syed Zadgan, an organization of khadims (priests) of the Dargah, has been at logger heads with the Dargah committee, constituted by ministry of minority affairs, on who is the rightful owner of the money.

Earlier, the Anjuman was to be given Rs 1.5 crore as proposed by the delegation of the Pakistan embassy while the rest was to go to the Dargah committee. "The money that was announced by the Pakistan president is for the Anjuman and no distribution is acceptable," said Syed Wahid Angara, secretary of Anjuman during the ceremony. He had said that as per the ritual of the Dargah, the money which is given as Nazarana (gift) goes only to Khadim or to Anjuman committee.

But as the Anjuman stood up to quit the meeting Pakistan high commissioner Bashir took the hand of Wahid and requested them to discuss the issue. District collector Vebhav Galaria then proposed a closed-door meeting between the Pakistan delegation, Anjuman and members of the Dargah Committee.



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Agencies
February 17,2020

Islamabad, Feb 17: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday warned that Pakistan may face another refugee crisis if the international community failed to take notice of the current situation in India.

Speaking at the two-day refugee summit in Islamabad on 40 years of hosting Afghan refugees in Pakistan, he said India’s "ultranationalist ideology going unchecked could lead to destruction and the region could become a flashpoint", The Express Tribune quoted him as saying.

Khan said if the international community does not take notice of this situation, it will create another refugee crisis for Pakistan as Muslims of India will move to Pakistan.

"This is not the India of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. The United Nations (UN) must play its role otherwise it will become a very big problem in the future," Duniya News quoted Khan as saying.

He said said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that India can destroy Pakistan in 11 days is not a responsible statement by a premier of a nuclear state with a huge population, the paper reported.

Khan made the statement in the presence of visiting UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was also attending the summit.

He said because of the "Hindutva" ideology, Kashmiris have been lockdown for over 200 days. He alleged under the same ideology, the BJP-led government passed two discriminatory nationalistic legislations, targeting 200 million Muslims in India.

Khan was referring to India's Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the revocation of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The new citizenship law passed by the Indian Parliament in December 2019 offers citizenship to non-Muslim persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The Indian government has maintained that the CAA is an internal matter of the country and stressed that the goal is to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries.

India revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status on August 5. Reacting to India's move, Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi and expelled the Indian High Commissioner.

India has always maintained that Jammu and Kashmir is its integral part and ruled out any third party mediation, including either from the UN or the US, saying it is a bilateral issue with Pakistan.

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Agencies
March 15,2020

Tehran, Mar 15: Two hundred and thirty-four Indians stranded in coronavirus-hit Iran have arrived in India, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday.

The batch comprises 131 students and 103 pilgrims, he said.

“234 Indians stranded in Iran have arrived in India; including 131 students and 103 pilgrims. Thank you Ambassador Dhamu Gaddam and @India_in_Iran team for your efforts. Thank Iranian authorities,” Jaishankar tweeted.

The third batch of Indians from Iran arrived early Sunday. A second batch of 44 Indian pilgrims had arrived from Iran on Friday.

Iran is one of the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus outbreak and the government has been working on plans to bring back Indians stranded there.

The first batch of 58 Indian pilgrims were brought back from Iran on Tuesday.

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Agencies
June 16,2020

Washington, Jun 16: The United States will reduce its troop strength in Germany from the nearly 52,000 at present to 25,000, President Donald Trump has said in Washington.

In an interaction with reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump attributed the move to high costs and Germany being "delinquent" in its payment to NATO.

"We have 52,000 soldiers in Germany. That's a tremendous amount of soldiers. It's a tremendous cost to the United States and Germany, as you know, is very delinquent in their payments to NATO.

"They are paying one per cent and they're supposed to be a two per cent. And then two percent is very low. It should be much more than that. So they are delinquent of billions of dollars," Trump alleged.

"So, we're putting the number down to 25,000 soldiers. We'll see what happens, but Germany has not been making payments. In addition to that, I was the one that brought it up. Everybody talks about Trump with Russia. Well, I brought this up a long time ago. Why is Germany paying Russia billions of dollars for energy and then we're supposed to protect Germany from Russia? How does that work? It doesn't work," the US president said.

US soldiers, he said, are paid well. "They live in Germany. They spend vast amounts of money in Germany. Everywhere around those bases is very prosperous for Germany. So, Germany takes. And then on top of it, they treat us very badly on trade. We have trade with the EU, Germany being the biggest member, and very, very badly on trade and we are negotiating with them on that. But right now, I'm not satisfied with the deal they want to make," Trump said.

"They've cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars over the years on trade," he said.

The US protects them and then they take advantage of America on trade, the president said.

"So we are working on a deal with them, but it's very unfair and I would say by far, the worst abuser is Germany," he said.

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