LAHORE: Attempts to unite the various Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan factions have failed as Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani refused to accept Sahabzada Fazil Karim as the party general secretary, Daily Times learnt here on Thursday.
| "Him? I can't accept him! He ain't hardly holy at all! How many people's he killed? Lately, I mean." |
A JUP (N) leader, requesting anonymity, told the newspaper, that some senior Brelvi clerics had formed a committee in February in order to unite the various JUP groups. Maulanas Sarferaz Naeemi and Abdul Qyume Hazarvi were the committee heads. The committee has listened to viewpoints of all groups and observed that differences within the different groups are based on personality clashes and asked all leaders to forget their differences and reunite.
| "Yar! We be holy men! We be united!... Keep yer hands away from them guns, Noorani, 'r we'll disunite yez!" |
Currently, the JUP is split into four major groups: Maulana Sha Ahmad Nooraniâ faction (which is considered the major group), the Sahabzada Fazil Karim faction (which enjoys support in Punjab and is considered the second major group), the JUP (Niazi) lead by Sahabzada Anisul Hassnian and the JUP (Nifaz-e-Shariaht) headed by Engineer Saleem Ullah Khan are the two minor groups. A JUP group has also changed its name to the âNizam-e-Mustafa Partyâ being part of the National Alliance. Sources claimed that Sahabzada Fazil Karim had demanded the secretary general office of the united party but Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani wanted as vice-president. Mr Karim refused to accept this proposal and attempts to unite the JUP have failed. He was said to have contacted Pir Syed Mazhar Saeed Kazmi, the Nizam-e-Mustafa Party (NMP) patronage, and the Jamaat-e-Ahle Sonnet (JAS) for a merger. According to Muhammad Nawaz Khural, the JAS secretary of information, negotiations between the NMP and the JUP (Fazil) are continuing and both groups could unite. But Mr Naeemi has denied failure.
| In case anyone's forgotten â JUP's a signatory of Binny's declaration of war against us. Since it's a member organization of the "World Islamic Front," along with Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Harkat ul-Mujaheddin, I consider the party and all its members in the same category as al-Qaeda. |
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