Islamabad, May 11 (PTI) Pakistani Parliamentarians were left stunned when a lawmaker led a prayer for slain al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the National Assembly despite being told by Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi not to do so.
Maulvi Asmatullah, an independent candidate from Zbob in Balochistan province, stood up in the lower house of Parliament yesterday and said lawmakers should pray for bin Laden, who was killed by US commandos in a unilateral raid on his hideout in Abbottabad near here on May 2.
Two lawmakers from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province — former federal minister Attaur Rehman, the younger brother of JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman; and Laiq Muhammad Khan — as well as Minister of State for Health Shahjehan Yousaf of the PML-Q and PPP parliamentarian Sher Muhammad Baloch participated in the ‘fateha’ prayer that lasted about a minute.