Thenews.com.pk
Yousaf Ali

PESHAWAR: Chances of revival of the conglomerate of religious parties are still bright as leaders of the two major religio-political parties — Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and Jamaat-e-Islami — are quite optimistic of the restoration of the alliance.

“I think it has become the need of the hour that the religious forces should unite once again on a platform,” said Sirajul Haq, former NWFP senior minister and central deputy chief of the Jamaat, while talking to The News.

The leadership of the Fazl faction of JUI is rather more enthusiastic about the revival of the alliance of religious forces – Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. Syed Bakhtiar Maani, who is a senior member of the Jamaat and a former member of the National Assembly, said that he had met the provincial president of the JUI-F Senator Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan on his return from Haj and asked him as to why they were not quitting the government. Maulana Gul replied that if the JI assured them that the MMA would be revived, they would quit the government.

Reports are circulating that the JUI-F leaders have made contacts with the JI a number of times to revive the alliance for the last more than two years, but the latter remained inflexible on joining hands once again.

Also, some fresh reports suggested that contacts were being made between the leadership of both the parties in Islamabad wherein no solid progress could be made. The reports were, however, rejected by the leaders of both the sides as baseless. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of JUI-F in a statement, stressed that they had not made any contact with the JI for revival of the MMA.

Sirajul Haq said there was no truth in the statements published by an Urdu-language daily. He said the entire leadership of the JI was busy in some organisational programmes in Lahore last week.

The common belief among the leadership of both the parties is that they could better serve their cause if united. From a joint platform, they can emerge a major political force at least in the Frontier province once again, said a senior JI leader.

Sirajul Haq was of the opinion that there were no serious differences between the religious forces. Therefore they should be united once again. “This is the need of the hour. From a united platform, we can better combat growing US influence in each and every institution in the country and foil the evil designs of the infidel forces against Islam and Pakistan,” he said.

There were some developments that hampered the revitalisation of the MMA so far. The first and foremost was the JI boycott of the general elections in 2008. Had the JI not boycotted the general elections, the alliance would have been restored, remarked a senior JUI-F member. The gap widened when the JI ended its electoral boycott and started taking part in by-elections. Both the parties contested against each other in the by-polls on vacant national and provincial assembly seats making both of them suffered a lot.

After around three years of the dissolution of the conglomerate, the ice seems to have started melting. The leaders of the major components of the alliance have started realising that the alliance is not only important for serving their cause more effectively, but also a matter of their survival.