11 April 2005	Monday	01 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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PESHAWAR, April 10: The Jamaat-i-Islami’s women’s wing has opposed the plan to hold a film festival in Lahore and demanded that the government should ban such events. The party’s activists at a meeting at the Quran Institute on Sunday, passed a resolution demanding a ban on marathon races. According to a statement issued here, the wing’s nazima Balqis Hussain said the government’s policies were propagating vulgarity and obscenity. “Marathon races have nothing to do with our society. Their purpose is to promote obscenity in the country,” she said.

She said her party would not allow the implementation of treaties like the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Gender Reforms Action Plan. She said the party would work to strengthen the character of Pakistani women. The treaties aimed at eliminating gender discrimination although there was segregation between men and women, the participants were told.

The participants of the meeting, which was also attended by the party’s MNAs, MPAs and councillors, said the government’s attempts to establish a secular society were against the teachings of Islam.

“Holding film festivals and marathons shows that the Musharraf government is out to eliminate Islamic culture and values,” Fousia Ghulam Nabi, the provincial information secretary of the women’s wing said.