KARACHI: Karachi began celebration of the Id-i-Milad-un-Nabi last night [June 20] with colourful illuminations on public buildings and Seerat meetings after Isha prayers in leading mosques.

The Port Trust Building was a blaze of colour with strings of small lamps with neon tube-light glare in green, blue, yellow and red colours in the background. The Arambagh Mosque, its two minarets and three domes, was profusely illuminated with many-coloured lights.

A different note was struck at the lighted Dawood Square which was like a huge block of light dotted with rectangular slabs of concrete. The new building had turned on its built-in concealed lights. While illuminations on some buildings had been completed before dusk, electricians were at work on a large number of buildings till after midnight.

The celebration of Id-i-Milad will continue today with Seerat meetings and processions planned by various religious and civic bodies.

[Meanwhile, as reported by our correspondent in Rawalpindi,] Khan Abdus Sabur Khan, Leader of the Government party in the National Assembly, today [June 20] drew the attention of his countrymen to the war-psychosis being built up in India and reminded the Opposition parties in the country of the role that the political opposition was required to play in a developing country.

In a forceful policy speech in the National Assembly, Mr Sabur Khan strongly criticised the six- and eight-point programmes of the Opposition which, he said, were similar in nature and warned the Opposition parties that the Govern­ment will “strike ruthlessly” against those who were trying to dismember the country.

Participating in the general debate on Budget, the Leader of the House said, “We consider the people as our mainstay”. However, he added the Government was not in a position to take into confidence a handful of intellectuals who were under foreign influence.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2017