Four MMA parties to jointly contest LG polls

LAHORE: Four Islamist parties which were part of the defunct Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA) have agreed to contest the coming local bodies elections in Punjab and Sindh on a joint platform.
The decision was taken by four top religious parties including Jamaat Islami, Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP), Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI-F) and Islami Tehrik Pakistan (ITP) during a meeting of their leaders at the JUP office here on Saturday. Briefing newsmen after the meeting, JUP Punjab president Qari Zawwar Bahadur said a 5-member steering committee had been constituted to chalk out modalities of cooperation and other details of contesting local bodies polls. The committee headed by Qari Zawwar Bahadur will hold regular meetings and discuss proposals and suggestions by the leaderships of the four respective parties.
The meeting also demanded the central leaderships of the four parties to take necessary and solid measures at the central level to set up a political alliance of religious parties. The meeting stressed that the religious alliance was the need of the hour to counter the conspiracies by the secular lobbies and the enemies of Islam against Islamist parties in the country. These conspiracies are aimed at marginalising and suppressing Islamist elements in society. The meeting also condemned large scale raids on seminaries, besides the arrest and alleged victimisation of ulema and students on baseless cases in the name of National Action Plan. The meeting demanded the Punjab chief minister to take serious notice of the situation which was aimed at disturbing peace in the province.
The meeting also condemned the PPP leader and former High Commission in UK, Wajed Shamsul Hasan, for trying to meddle with the settled issue of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat and the status of Qadiyanis, and warned that after the constitution of the country unanimously declared Qadiyanis as infidels any attempt to make the issue controversial tantamount to violation of the constitution.
The meeting also condemned the unprovoked Indian firing and killing Pakistani citizens in violation of international laws, and said it looked a conspiracy to jeopardise regional peace to favor the defeated Nato forces on the withdrawal from Afghanistan after the failed military campaign of 14 years in the name of the war on terror.