LAHORE: The Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust has issued a clarification over a news report published in this paper on August 31, regarding an anti-Trump rally backed by the trust that concluded at the Lahore Press Club.
The clarification says that the trust has, in the past, held anti-America and anti-India rallies, and it is well within its rights and responsibilities to do so. “Organising such rallies is within the scope of its mission, as the Trust is the protector of the ideological boundaries of Pakistan” read the clarification signed by Secretary Shahid Rasheed.
The report had merely pointed out that the mission of the Trust had been to remain a research organisation, with its official mission statement reading: “It is this ideological education which the Trust seeks to impart to the Pakistani youth through its publications. I hope this literature will inspire the Pakistani youth to rise above provincial, linguistic and sectarian rivalries and make them apostles of national unity and territorial integrity.”
It further states: “The Trust’s programmes aim at highlighting objectives for which Pakistan was established, recalling sacrifices rendered for achieving it, and creating awareness among people, particularly young generations, about its ideological basis and its glorious Islamic cultural heritage”.
As for the details, the ‘clarification’ also claimed that by the end of it, “the rally had turned into a crowd of thousands.” However, the stopover at Charing Cross had wielded no more than a count of 60 or 70 persons counted by the reporter in question. Moreover, while it is always hard to determine the numbers of a crowd, according to the eyewitnesses, whatever the figure, it was nowhere near being in the “thousands,” and Pakistan Today stands by this report.
