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Maulana Samiul Haqâs faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam is devising a plan to widen the existing membership of Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, a six-party religious alliance, in order to cut into the influence of the two major parties â Jamaat-e Islami and rival JUI-F â it alleges have made the alliance a virtual hostage. The move comes in the wake of simmering tensions in the MMA between the four smaller parties and the two bigger ones.
The fact that the 4 âsmaller partiesâ barely got any votes is a big reason they are being ignored by the JI and JUI-F
âWe want to see in our ranks many of those parties and groups that were part of the Milli Yakjehti Council (MYC) but were not included in the MMAâs political alliance format,â the deputy secretary general of JUI-S, Mufti Usman Yar Khan, told TFT.
| Shouldn't that be "Yarrrr! Khaaaaan!" |
The MYC was set up by dozens of religious and sectarian parties on March 24th, 1995 ostensibly to create sectarian harmony. Instead, the sectarian groups used the MYC platform to get their activists released, most of whom were arrested in police crackdowns against sectarian terrorism, particularly in the Punjab. At the time, one Sipah member of provincial assembly, now a banned party, was a minister in the coalition government in the Punjab. While the PPP government went along with the MYC initiative to bring sectarian harmony, the groups used the device to their own ends.
The succesor to the MYC was the Pakistan-Afghan Defence Council, which didnât really go anywhere.
| The successor to the Pak-Afghan Defense Council is MMA, even though the Defense Council remains in existence... |
Some insiders say that at the time the Sipah-e-Sahabaâs strategy ran afoul of some of its members and resulted in the emergence of the hardliner Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Police officials say the SSP created the impression of a rift in order to put on itself a political gloss while getting the LJ to keep doing sectarian terrorism. âThis was a good ploy. The SSP was trying to get out of the shadow of JUI-F and wanted its own independent political presence. This meant getting a splinter group to do the violent work,â says a former intelligence officer with long experience of investigating sectarian cases.
| That's pretty much a standard pattern: a "legitimate" face, and then the hard boyz who can do the real work with plausible deniability. Only in this case it's a three-layer cake, with JUI-Fazl in the gummint, Sipah ranting and raving and getting itself banned, and Lashkar e-Jhangvi providing the hard boyz. |
In many ways the rift on the Shia side was more genuine. The militants of the banned Sipah-e-Mohammad Pakistan (SMP) turned against their chief Murid Abbas Yazdani for his conciliatory tone and accused him of compromising on fundamental beliefs. The new leader Ghulam Raza Naqvi, who always stayed away from the MYC, repudiated the SMPâs agreement on the code of ethics, which declared Khilafat-e-Rasheda and resurrection of Imam Mehdi as part of the faith.
| Khilafat-e-Rasheda refers to the establishment of the Caliphate. They're arguing over not only how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but what color turbans they wear... |
These splinter groups formed an alliance with other likeminded militants, supported by a large numbers of madrassahs across the country. The two warring factions on both sides engaged in fierce sectarian battle but the Shia groups slowly retreated in the face of Deobandi-sectarian onslaught. The late nineties saw major attacks on Shia targets in Karachi and major urban centres of Punjab.
Thatâs because the Deobandi militias were allowed to operate as small armies since they were fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir, and the sectarian groups recruited directly from them. The Shias werenât used in those conflicts, and so their groups were cracked down on by the state.
But the JUI-S is trying to play its hand cleverly. The party seems to be moving towards getting other groups in by going through the âjihadiâ groups. âWe do not reckon Lashkar-e-Taiba and banned Jaish-e-Mohammad as enemy organisations and consider them as patriotic as anyone else in Pakistan,â JUI-Sâ Khan told TFT. Interestingly, police and intelligence officers are very clear about the sectarian linkages of Jaish. The group is also accused of trying to mount attacks on General Pervez Musharraf. JUI-S sources say party leaders have met with Dawa leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed recently in Lahore where the proposal of pulling the group into the Alliance has been discussed. The JUI-S leaders have also held meetings with former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Lt-Gen (Retd) Hameed Gul and discussed the issue of expansion with him. âYes, our leaders have met Hameed Gul Sahib to discuss some important matters relating to national politics,â a senior party leader confirmed to TFT. Khan even hints at the possibility of a âdirect or indirectâ presence of General Gul in the future MMA setup. âWe want to make the alliance more viable and acceptable for more religious groups and General Gul is a patriot who has rendered enormous services for the Islamic cause,â Khan says.
| I'm not sure what the diffo is between a "patriot" and a "lunatic" in Pakland, if any... |
The Sami-ul Haq group is not happy with the lukewarm reaction of the MMA to the military operation in Wana and says the Alliance has betrayed its voters who gave it a landslide victory in the October 2002 elections. âMaulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed are avoiding launching an effective agitation against the government, because they have made a lucrative deal with General [Pervez] Musharrafâs regime,â Khan says. âMaulana Fazlur Rehman deliberately went to the United Kingdom to avoid reacting to the military operation against the mujahideen while Qazi [Hussain Ahmed] Sahib thinks it is appropriate to see his pictures in newspapers while addressing negligible number of people,â a senior JUI-S leader says.
Poor Sami, if he had gotten enough votes, he could have been offered a similar deal, as it is, he is having to attack Fazl and Qazi from the âRightâ.
It is not clear whether Hafiz Saeed of al-Dawa has accepted the JUI-S proposal but the latter which claims the formation of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan along with its rival Fazlur Rehman faction, is optimistic about Dawaâs inclusion. There are also elements within the MMA who want to open the Alliance to the entry of the banned Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (formerly Sipah-e-Sahaba) of late Azam Tariq, but the Shia element in the religious alliance is resisting these moves.
| That might be an indication they have some sense of self-preservation... |
The Tehreek-e-Islami (now banned) of Allama Sajid Naqvi had warned of quitting the MMA when its leadership had proposed to include Maulana Azam Tariq in 2002. Tariq was gunned down in Islamabad last October along with four companions. âWe cannot accept the inclusion of these fanatics in the MMA fold. But if they do find their way in, we will walk out,â Allama Hasan Turabi of Tehreek-e-Islami says. Many analysts believe the JUI-S wants to make another Milli Yekjehti Council out of the MMA.
| ... thereby turning it a full circle, back to its roots. |
Such a diffuse entity would enable smaller parties to gang up on the JI and the JUI-F.
| ... whether they actually got any votes or not. |
Leaders of the rival JUI-F, however, say they will not allow changing the MMAâs existing nomenclature. âAll the major religious groups are represented in the present format, which also reflects sectarian harmony,â a JUI-F leader told TFT, adding: âAny move to change its present configuration will be disastrous.â The Jamaat corroborates this strategy. âThe present format cannot be changed,â says a JI leader and denies the two major parties have made the alliance hostage. âEvery component in the alliance has equal rights and no one supersedes the other,â he says.
"So sit down and shut up." |