Banners and hoardings could be seen across Lahore announcing a mass meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan ground on occasion of Youm-e-Takbir on Sunday (May 28).
The day is celebrated as a national day in Pakistan in commemoration of Chagai-I and Chagai-II series of nuclear tests in May 1998.
The Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML) is hosting the event. Its spokesperson Hanzla Ammad told this reporter that thousands would attend the Takbir Conference. He added the PMML was registered in 2021 with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as a pollical party and it had already fielded over 270 candidates in Punjab polls, which are yet to be held.
“Chair is our electoral symbol”, he said, as the ECP websites confirmed their candidatures.
Many claim the PMML is a political face of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) though the leadership has denied any link to the banned outfit.
Pakistan had declared the Lashkar-e-Taiba as proscribed organization in 2002 but allowed its charity, the JuD, continue its relief activities before launching the final crackdown against the organization and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF)-the sister organization of the JuD linked to Hafiz Saeed-in 2019, closing their extensive network of hundreds of seminaries, hospitals, ambulance services and publishing houses. The government had also slapped different charges including illegal funding against Hafiz Saeed and his associates, putting them all behind the bars. Independent analysts believed the steps were taken under FATF pressure which had blacklisted the country under allegations of state failure to stop illegal funding and money laundering. However, the discussion was already started within the ranks of the JuD about entering into electoral politics. The birth of a new party, Milli Muslim League (MML), in 2017 was the outcome of the considerations.
The MML appeared on the national political scenario a year before the general elections of 2018. But the authorities quickly realized the intensity of national and international backlash and rejected its application for the registration as political party, depriving the MML from contesting the national poll.
The PMML has already started its political activities across Pakistan, holding mass meetings in Karachi and Quetta on May 8 and May 21 respectively. Its planned rally in Peshawar on May 14 has been rescheduled due to “security situation.” The party, said a source, had spent millions of rupees to conduct the Takbir Conference on Sunday.
PMML president Khalid Masood Sandhu wanted to transform Pakistan into Islamic welfare state, according to his press conference at Lahore Press Club on Friday.
The party’s manifesto emphasized upon establishing a Salah (five times prayer) and Zakat system and nationalization of mosques where the state would pay the monthly salary to prayer leader, as per the pattern of Saudi Arabia. It discourages sectarianism and called for the unity among the ranks of Muslim sects.
An insight into the party ranks show the majority of leadership and workers were part of the JuD before joining the new platform.
“It is new Ahle-Hadith [one of four major sects in Islam including Brelvi, Deoband and Shia] force,” the source added.
Having thousands of followers of Ahle-Hadith school across Pakistan, the PMML is expected to emerge as major pressure group in the country’s politics though the chances of its success are so far rare, believed a professor of political science in Punjab University, wishing anonymity.
He considered the PMML as an addition to the pro-establishment political force, mentioning the long-love affairs of Muslim leagues with the powerful institution.
Currently, he said, Pakistan has dozens of Muslim Leagues registered with the ECP and they included Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Awami Muslim League, Muslim League Council, Muslim League Functional, Muslim League Zia-ul-Haq Shaheed, Pakistan Muslim League Sher-e-Bengal A.K Fazl-e-Haq, Pakistan Muslim League Organization, Pakistan National Muslim League, People’s Muslim League, All Pakistan Muslim League Jinnah and All Pakistan Muslim League. All are pro-military, he said.
