Election season: JI may forge alliance of six religious parties
These parties, already part of Difa-e-Pakistan Council, have decided to cooperate in 2013 polls, says a JI leader.
PESHAWAR:
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) rift over the restoration of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) is going to take a new turn, as the former is now trying to forge a new alliance of six religious parties, it is learnt.
MMA, an alliance of religious parties with representation of the Shia, Sunni-deobandi, Sunni-barelvi, and the Ahle Hadith sects had contested the 2002 polls and formed government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. However, the group split after JI and some other MMA members decided to boycott the 2008 elections.
With the election season drawing closer, the religious parties have once again stepped up efforts to forge an electoral alliance.
A senior JI leader, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the JI, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Sami (JUI-S), JUI-Ideological, Ahle Sunnah Wal Jammat (ASWJ), Jamiat Ahl Hadith (Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer faction) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP Sawad-e-Azam) were likely to join hands for the upcoming elections.
He said that these parties have decided in principle to cooperate with each other for the next general elections.
“A meeting of the leaders of these parties took place at the residence of JI senior leader Liaquat Baloch in October, where this alliance was discussed,” he said.
He said that it was not yet clear whether these parties will go for an electoral alliance or contest polls under their own flags.
He said it was likely that the alliance would be discussed at the sidelines of Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) leaders meeting to be held in Islamabad on November 12.
Interestingly, all these parties are also part of DPC, a conglomerate of about 36 religious political parties, banned and jihadi outfits.
The leaders of the parties likely to form an alliance were also in attendance at a religious clerics convention organised by JI on November 3 in Peshawar. JI chief Munawwar Hassan and other prominent leaders castigated JUI-F on that occasion for what they called “weakening the religious forces”.
The JI official said that besides forging this alliance, JI was also in contact with other parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over electoral adjustment. He said that the alliance’s agenda will be mostly anti-American. He said that there was very little chance of JI attending the MMA meeting, in which JI chief Syed Munawar Hassan has been invited.
“Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s statements have muddied the water and in such a situation it was unlikely for JI to sit with JUI-F,” he said.
The general secretary of the JI Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chapter Shabbir Ahmed Khan told The Express Tribune that his party was trying to forge a broad-based alliance with religious parties and other political forces of the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2012.
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) rift over the restoration of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) is going to take a new turn, as the former is now trying to forge a new alliance of six religious parties, it is learnt.
MMA, an alliance of religious parties with representation of the Shia, Sunni-deobandi, Sunni-barelvi, and the Ahle Hadith sects had contested the 2002 polls and formed government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. However, the group split after JI and some other MMA members decided to boycott the 2008 elections.
With the election season drawing closer, the religious parties have once again stepped up efforts to forge an electoral alliance.
A senior JI leader, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the JI, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Sami (JUI-S), JUI-Ideological, Ahle Sunnah Wal Jammat (ASWJ), Jamiat Ahl Hadith (Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer faction) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP Sawad-e-Azam) were likely to join hands for the upcoming elections.
He said that these parties have decided in principle to cooperate with each other for the next general elections.
“A meeting of the leaders of these parties took place at the residence of JI senior leader Liaquat Baloch in October, where this alliance was discussed,” he said.
He said that it was not yet clear whether these parties will go for an electoral alliance or contest polls under their own flags.
He said it was likely that the alliance would be discussed at the sidelines of Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) leaders meeting to be held in Islamabad on November 12.
Interestingly, all these parties are also part of DPC, a conglomerate of about 36 religious political parties, banned and jihadi outfits.
The leaders of the parties likely to form an alliance were also in attendance at a religious clerics convention organised by JI on November 3 in Peshawar. JI chief Munawwar Hassan and other prominent leaders castigated JUI-F on that occasion for what they called “weakening the religious forces”.
The JI official said that besides forging this alliance, JI was also in contact with other parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over electoral adjustment. He said that the alliance’s agenda will be mostly anti-American. He said that there was very little chance of JI attending the MMA meeting, in which JI chief Syed Munawar Hassan has been invited.
“Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s statements have muddied the water and in such a situation it was unlikely for JI to sit with JUI-F,” he said.
The general secretary of the JI Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chapter Shabbir Ahmed Khan told The Express Tribune that his party was trying to forge a broad-based alliance with religious parties and other political forces of the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2012.