Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) president Maulana Fazlur Rehman said at the Minar-e-Pakistan public meeting on Sunday that the real challenge before the MMA is to win the 2018 Elections. "We had not accepted the leadership of secular and pro-US rulers in the past nor would do so in the future," he asserted, vowing to make Pakistan a true Islamic and welfare state.
He said secular people had remained in power for last 70 years and the "Minar-e-Pakistan bear witness to that." He said e Muslim Ummah was being made the fodder of the war since the Ummah had to face bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said conspiracies were being hatched for a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran and to divide the Ummah.
He said the powers which talked about human rights themselves violated the human rights. He said that as long as the human rights were not secure, peace could not be ensured. "Pakistan is not free as its economy and policies are being framed by the IMF and the World Ban," he said, adding that the UN wanted to establish its hold over parliament and the politics of this Jamaat-e-Islami chief Senator Sirajul Haq said at the mammoth public meeting of the MMA that the Minar-e-Pakistan and the minarets of the Badshahi mosque were calling for an Islamic Pakistan and not a New Pakistan. He said nation had not seen Islamic system for a single day during the last Islamic system in the country. He pledged to fight for the Islamic system till the last drop of blood in the body. He said formation of the religious parties' alliance had greatly upset the secular forces. He said the MMA was at war with poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, tyranny and injustice and their war was not simply against two families. "More than $ one billion owned by two families of the country was siphoned off to Britain. These families have been amassing wealth and on the other hand, the army generals from Ayub Khan to Pervez Musharraf had been forming their own Muslim Leagues," he said.
Siraj praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his bold policies. He also expressed satisfaction over the election of Mahatir Muhammad in Malaysia. He said Turkey, Malaysia and Pakistan could jointly strive for the liberation of Kashmir and Palestine. He said it was a pity that Islamabad was just like a graveyard and the rulers there had no guts to raise their voice against the bloodshed going on in Kashmir, Syria and Palestine. He said the JI and the MMA wanted to open the door of the assemblies to the poor.
JI KP chief Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan congratulated the MMA leadership for initiating the process to build the country as per Nizam-e-Mustafa. He said Pakistan had unlimited natural resources of men and material. He said if the country was facing energy shortage, lawlessness and terrorism, US slavery and heavy foreign debt, the ruling junta which had been plundering national wealth and transferring it abroad was responsible for all this.
The JI Senator said that the government wanted to release CIA agent Shakil Afridi and Col Joseph but warned that whoever made such an attempt would have to face public wrath.
JUI central leader and former Deputy Chairman of the Senate, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, said that hundreds of thousands of people had sacrificed their lives for creation of Pakistan. However, he lamented, now 20 million children were out of schools. Almost five million children were studying in madaris whom some so-called intellectuals termed as factories churning out illiterate people. He said rulers had plundered public money, ruined the country's economy and burdened the country under heavy foreign debt.
He termed the public meeting a referendum by the people of Lahore in favour of the MMA. He said secularism and liberalism would not be allowed to and the MMA would stand in the way of the people pursuing foreign agenda. Sahibzada Shah Muhammad Awais Noorani in his address said that building Pakistan as an Islamic, democratic and welfare state is MMA's primary objective. He said religious leadership is fighting against secular forces. He urged the nation to stand behind it.
"Pakistan resolution had been adopted at this Minar-e-Pakistan 78 years ago and our forefathers had achieved this country under slogan of La Ilaha Illallah," he said, adding that same spirit was needed now. Shah Awais said there was US hand behind terrorism in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.
MMA's deputy chief Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi, in his address, said that the country was facing conspiracies by the colonial powers. He said MMA wanted liberation of Palestine and Kashmir. He condemned US action against Iran. He said MMA would establish the rule of law and of the constitution and abolish the class-based education system.
MMA Secretary General Liaquat Baloch said that 2018 elections would be a turning point in the country's history and the MMA was destined to win the polls. He said those who came to power after 2013 elections had crated numerous problems for the country. He declared MMA would protect all the constitutional rights of minorities.
Islamic Tehrik central leader Allama Arif Hussain Wahidi said that the secular forces wanted to wipe out the Islamic character of the country. He said MMA would liberate country from the hold of secular elements who were agents of the western powers. He said the country would soon come under Nizam-e-Mustafa and Quranic system, which would help solve the problems of the Ummah including the Kashmir and Palestine issues.
Rana Shafiq Ahmed Pasroori said Minar-e-Pakistan moot was tantamount to a warning against the conspiracies of the US, India and Israel and gave the message that only Islam would rule this country. He deplored that dirty politics was going on in the country and a disqualified person was speaking the language of India against the state institutions while the daughters of the nation were being made to dance in public meetings (at PTI rallies).
MMA deputy chief Pir Ejaz Hashmi said a former ruler had challenged the religious leadership but he had now fled the country and could not even dream of returning to the country. He said the abolition of the interest-based system would automatically end the hold of the Zionists and secular forces in the country.
JUI leader Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan said that in the 2018 elections, two forces would be facing each other. He said on one side would be the US slaves and those who desired to remain in power at the behest of foreign powers and on the other side would be those who desired peace, law and order, rule of law and those who wanted to build the country as the fortress of Islam. He said majority of people are lovers of Islam but secular forces and military rulers had created instability in the country.
MMA Sindh chapter's chief Maulana Arshad Mehmud Soomro said the country could not get the system for which it had come into being seventy years ago. Markazi Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith leader Hafiz Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer said that only the system given by Allah and the Holy Prophet would work in this country and the system moving around the feudal lords and capitalists would be wound up. He wondered why Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan did not raise their voice for the rights of the Kashmiris and the Palestinians.