May 27, 2023: Senator M Talha Mahmood (JUI) who was recently appointed Federal Minister of Religious Affairs decided to send for a journalist, and had his statement recorded in a video. Thereafter he had it uploaded as a tweet from the address @senatorMtalha. We produce it below with our English translation.
Translation
The issue of publicity of Qadiani products on social media
A strong reaction from Senator Muhammad Talha Mahmood, the Federal Minister of Religious Affairs.
Orders elimination of brochures. Report demanded within two days.
On the picture
Special interview of Senator Muhammad Talha Mahmood, Federal Minister of Religious Affairs
Talk on the issue of publicity of Qadiani products on social media
The minister’s talk in this 2:13 video is rather garbled. It can, however, be assessed that it is about the publicity of some commercial products produced by a company with majority shareholders of Ahmadis (perhaps Shezan) in a brochure that was provided to pilgrims headed for Hajj. The minister expressed his ‘intense pain’ (Bara dukh hua) over this, and demanded ‘urgent action’ and a report from concerned authorities “within two days”. He stated that the issue touched on the sentiments of the people involved in a religious ritual.
The senator has, regrettably, found it politically advantageous to go public on this non-issue. How could publicity of a Qadiani product in a brochure be so objectionable to the pilgrims, while they were all traveling on a plane, designed, produced, and marketed by non-Muslims? None of them was prepared to jump out of it. Also, he knows that Ahmadis from Pakistan, till the 1970s/1980s, used to perform Hajj, and those from other countries still do.
The minister unnecessarily got carried away by the complaints of a few bigots. He is enlightened enough to realize the demerits of such sentiments. Surely, the minister of a country, faced with its economic and political crises of May 2023, should have little time to attend to such frivolous and petty complaints.
