A very interesting concept, I think the Jamaat islami encouraged it amongst it’s cadres.
http://peshawar1.com/htmls/rahimullah/rahim33.html
In a mass wedding in rural Mardan, 27 poor couples tied the knot…
Rahimullah Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: In a mass wedding in rural Mardan, 27 poor couples tied the knot in presence of a large number of curious onlookers who had never before seen such a spectacle in their area.
The fun-filled event took place in Ghundo Shamozai, sited in an under-developed area stricken by poverty and unemployment. The couples mostly belonged to Shamozai and the surrounding villages but two bridegrooms hailed from Buner district and one from Nowshera.
The Bay Bay Welfare Trust, founded by the Mardan-born philanthropist Ghulam Nabi Khan who is now a businessman in Belgium, paid for the marriages. Each bride received dowry, which included household items ranging from cooking utensils to clothes, pedestal fans, sewing machines and basic furniture, worth Rs 19,600. The bridegrooms got a pair of clothes, chappals and sweets.
Decorated cars rented by the trust later drove the brides to their new homes. Earlier, the male and female guests, seated in separate enclosures, were served food. Collective prayers were offered to seek happy wedlock for the couples. The night before, a concert was arranged to celebrate the weddings.
Music filled the air and fireworks illuminated the sky on that happy occasion. The more than 1,000 invitees, who included relations and friends of the couples as well as notables of the area, applauded when Ghulam Nabi garlanded the bridegrooms and gifted them Rs 1,000 each as “salami.” He later gave “salami” and a copy of the Holy Quran to the brides.
NWFP irrigation and religious affairs minister Hafiz Akhtar Ali, who is the MPA from the area and was chief guest at the mass wedding, also garlanded some of the bridegrooms. Beside him, others who spoke at the ceremony were Mardan district Nazim, Haji Raza Khan, DIG Police Mardan range Abdul Latif Gandapur, Naveed Khan, advocate, who runs the mass weddings programme on behalf of Bay Bay Welfare Trust, social worker Pir Abdul Nasir, and Zar Bahadur, president of the Zalanda Welfare Organization which organized the event. Journalist Haji Mohammad Gul Bangash conducted the ceremony while Pashto poets Akmal Lewanay, Mohammad Ayub Ayub, Muslim Khan, Aurangzeb Nasim, etc entertained the crowd with their poetry.
This was the third time that the Bay Bay Welfare Trust sponsored mass weddings of destitute girls in Mardan. Earlier, 20 marriages were solemnized in Gujjar Garhi village and another 19 in Mardan city. NWFP chief minister Akram Durrani was chief guest at the second event.
While praising the Bay Bay Welfare Trust for paying for the wedding of poor couples, minister Hafiz Akhtar Ali said the MMA government in the NWFP would encourage such NGOs that sincerely strived for the welfare of the people. However, he warned that NGOs that advanced the Western agenda and violated religious principles and cultural values would be taken to task. He alleged that certain NGOs were promoting mixing of the two sexes and misleading young girls.
Ghulam Nabi said he considered all the newly married couples as his own children. “I want them to feel that there are some people who care for them. The happiness and satisfaction that one draws from such occasions cannot be explained in words,” he remarked. Urging the well-to-do people to help the poor and the needy in their own communities, he said many problems could be solved through a collective effort. He said the dowry contained only essential items.