Bilal Zuberi

If you are married, how closely did you read the Nikah Nama before signing it?

Some time last summer my fiance decided that time had come for us to tie the knot. I was excited. So excited that I hastily agreed to do the Nikah (Katb-e-Kitaab, as levant Arabs call it) within the next few weeks. I called my trusted friend, Adil, for his advice on where to find a good scholar/Imam for the Nikah, esp someone who might be familiar with Arabic language because my wife happens to be a Palestinian. He, as always, had an excellent recommendation.

During this process is when I actually read a Nikah Nama for the first time in my life and realized that it was missing some of the key provisions that my fiance and I had discussed earlier and wanted to be included. For example, we realized that there was no provision in the agreement for a woman’s right to ask for divorce. Secondly, there was no detailed discussions of the different types of Haq Mehr, except for the very minimum required at the time of marriage. Finally, there was no discussion on how our assets would get divided in the case of a divorce, or separation.

Darwaish

I am watching television right now and every news channels is reporting that declaration of emergency in Pakistan is likely sometime tonight or tomorrow for sure. This is happening when rumors about PML(N) leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif’s possible return to Pakistan within next 2-3 days were already in the air. Three likely reasons are being suggested for emergency:

1. Threats from United States to attack so called terrorist targets and growing terrorist activities in Pakistan.

2. General law and order situation in NWFP and Balochistan.

3. Killing and kidnapping of Chinese in Pakistan

I can’t understand HOW declaring emergency is a solution to all these problems. Aitezaz Ahsen suggested that the people who want to get rid of President Musharraf are giving him such advices. There is no justification of declaring emergency except for his malafied intentions of remaining in power at every cost. He said that emergency declaration will really be the biggest blunder by President Musharraf and the end of his regime. Interesting observation.

Adil Najam

I was, indeed, surprised by the comments on our last ATP Quiz. Maybe I am too much of an academic and think that everyone has also read the things I have. Or, maybe, my text was misleading because I had suggested that the quiz was too easy. Anyway, it was not until comment no. 24 that anyone suggested the right name and, by their own admission, it was “just to be different.”

The right answer, as many suggested towards the end (after my ‘hint‘) is Field Marshall Mohammad Ayub Khan. But even those who eventually guessed this thought it was from Gohar Ayub’s new book – Glimpses from the Corridors of Power – or from Ayub Khan’s recently released Personal Diaries. It is, in fact, from Ayub Khan’s famous memoirs and biography – Friends, Not Masters.