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Musharraf
Corners Pakistani Islamic Alliance: Report
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Musharraf is seen in a stronger position now, according to analysts
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By
Asif Farooqi, IOL Correspondent
ISLAMABAD,
August 26 (IslamOnline.net) – The latest spate of raids by Pakistani
police on religious schools and institutions, coupled with the arrest
campaign that resulted in the detention of some Al-Qaeda-linked
persons the government calls "terror suspects", should have
led to a strong backlash by the Islamic opposition, but just the
opposite happened, according to analysts.
“The
MMA failed to cash in on this opportunity to take on the government
for what it had initially called as breach of sanctity of religious
places and people” Khalid Azim, a journalist and commentator told
IslamOnline.net.
The
MMA is the strong Islamic opposition alliance in Pakistan that has
since last parliamentarian elections been engaged in a political
wrangling with General Pervez Musharraf over the sweeping powers the
General enjoys.
During
the last fortnight, the Pakistani police have conducted several raids
on various religious seminaries in the federal capital Islamabad and
have picked up many of its students.
The
raiding forces went even further by carrying out thorough searches
through the women sections of the seminaries, inciting anger among the
religious class of the country.
However,
this anger and hatred failed to translate into a political backlash
against the government of Musharraf.
Even
the killing of a religious scholar and member of the alliance of
religious parties known as MMA, while in police custody, failed to
spark off an agitation campaign which has been the cornerstone of the
politics of the religious might in the country.
Qari
Noor Muhammad died in police custody last week in the Punjab town of
Faisalabad where he was picked up for alleged connections with
suspected terrorists.
MMA
leader explicitly blamed the government for the killing.
“There
were 82 marks of physical torture over the body of deceased prayer
leader,” leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and MMA
leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said.
He
added there was no doubt that Muhammad died because of torture and the
government was responsible for this heinous crime.
Following
the killing of the religious scholar and the subsequent raids on
seminaries, many parts of the country saw angry protests and
demonstrations against the government.
These
protests, however, failed to gain momentum as was predicted by many
analysts that these events could turn into an agitation campaign
against the government. Interestingly, many of the frontline leaders
of the MMA were absent from these protests.
The
MMA also failed to make its mark at the national parliament. Although
they conducted walkouts in protest from the National Assembly, they
failed to convince the government to apologize for the killing or
raids on the women sections of the seminaries.
On
the Defensive
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Muhammad was said to have been tortured to death by police
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Analysts
believe this unexpected behavior of the MMA leadership was probably
the result of suspected links between the arrested terror suspects and
members of the MMA parties.
Azim
said he was expecting some sort of a campaign by the MMA because the
government had perused a policy contradictory to the policies of the
rightwing allies.
He,
however, added the MMA leaders confined themselves only to issuing
statements and protest marches after Friday prayers for just one day.
Reason
for this behavior, he said, could be possible links with the terror
suspects who were caught by the government agencies from within the
premises of the MMA related people.
Pakistani
Interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat has accused the MMA for having
links with Al-Qaeda suspects.
He
said several of the terror suspects have been given refuge by some of
the members and workers of MMA throughout the country.
“We
have arrested many terrors suspects from the premises owned by MMA
workers and leaders” Hayat told IOL.
He
said the MMA leadership should explain as to whether or not their
workers have links with Al-Qaeda-related people.
Quoting
example, he said, the latest arrests made from Islamabad on August 12
which unearthed a plan to target major national installations in the
city, was linked to one MMA leader.
Usman,
alleged leader of the group which had, according to the government,
planned to blow up the parliament, army headquarters and many other
buildings on the eve of independence day celebrations of August 14,
was arrested while driving a vehicle of an MMA senior figure Abdul
Rashid Ghazi.
“Agencies
are looking for Ghazi who is head of the largest seminary of Islamabad
and also an MMA leader,” Hayat said.
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The MMA failed to turn the anti-government anger into a sweeping popular uprising
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He
added that Khaled Sheikh Muhammad, a known Al-Qaeda leader was
arrested from the house of an MMA leader last year.
Hayat
said he can quote many more Al-Qaeda operatives who were arrested
using the facilities provided by the MMA leaders.
“This
is a big threat to the MMA leaders,” Farooq Adil, deputy editor of a
Karachi based weekly magazine “Takbeer” said.
He
added that the MMA cannot afford to be labeled as siding with
Al-Qaeda. “This would ruin the politics of the alliance which has
been given the heaviest mandate in electoral history of the
country,” he added.
Farooq
added one should not ignore the fact that the MMA is an ally of the
government and has voted in favor of Musharraf in the parliament.
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