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| India-Pakistan |
| JUI-F, JI coming closer against common enemy |
| 2008-11-20 |
| The need for a common enemy to stay in the political arena will bring the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) closer once again. The two religious parties, the former partners in the six-party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), parted ways after former president Pervez Musharraf's implementation of November 3, 2007 emergency and the February 18 general elections. While JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad went several steps ahead with lawyers in their movement for the restoration of sacked chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other sacked judges, his JUI-F partner Fazlur Rehman kept his support limited to mere political statements and his party contested the elections to the dismay of its JI buddies. The bitter pill of defeat swallowed by the JUI-F during the general elections at the hands of the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) expanded the rifts in the defunct religious alliance as some senior leaders of Fazl's party accused some of their JI mates of conspiring against them in the general elections by supporting their opponents. The JI responded by saying that the defeat was the outcome of their 'wrong' policy of going for the elections. However, with the wave of insurgency, ever-increasing incidents of kidnapping, influx of displaced people from Swat, Bajaur and Mohmand and the worst flour crisis in NWFP provided a chance to the JUI-F and the JI to settle old scores with the ANP by reprimanding the secular party over its anti-Taliban stance and the issue of Pakhtunistan. It was JUI-F provincial president Gul Naseeb who raised the issue of Pakhtunistan and accused ANP of trying to divide the country by re-invigorating the defunct greater Pakhtunistan issue. The charge was vehemently denied by the NWFP government, which ordered inquiry into the installations of greater Paktunistan signboards in some southern districts of NWFP, which are the stronghold of the JUI-F. The ANP also said the Pakhtunistan issue was raised by the JUI-F to divert public attention from the land scam against its leadership. The JI, cashing the opportunity, brought its white paper against the provincial government reckoning its failures during the previous 200 days. Without condemning the burning of schools, slaughtering of innocent civilians and carrying out of suicide attacks on sport functions, the JI provincial chief Sirajul Haq demanded unilateral halt to operations against Taliban. Meanwhile, the JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman said that the revival of the MMA was the need of the hour. He described the prevailing situation in the NWFP and the Tribal Areas as main reason for the revival of the religious alliance. |
| Posted by:Fred |