All religious parties’ candidate new comers in the arena
LAHORE: The voters of NA-120 are not interested in the religious parties for the by-election, which is scheduled for September 17, on a seat that fell vacant after the disqualification of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case, Pakistan Today has observed.
According to details, there are three candidates in the race hailing from the religious parties but a survey of different areas of the constituency reveals that people are least interested in these candidates, and most of the voters vowed either to vote for Pakistan Tekreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) or Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N).
Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh is the candidate of the newly launched Milli Muslim League (MML) – the political face of Jamat ud Dawa (JuD) which is notorious for Kashmir Jihad. Another new entrant in the political arena is Sheikh Azhar Hussain Rizvi – the candidate of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) which is being backed by a firebrand orator and religious scholar Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi. Moreover, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has Zia Ansari as its candidate who is also contesting the election for the first time.
“These religious people are the real goons and even our state does not dare to tame them. They are more dangerous than politicians,” Khalid Hussain, a resident of UC-68 Mozang said. The road in front of Jamia Qadsia Chauburji – the headquarters of JuD and MML – is closed for many years and their people have made encroachments on the road and yet no government official took any action against them, he added while asking a question that who is more powerful; politicians or Mullahs?
According to reports, MML would be able to grab some votes keeping in view that their headquarter also falls in NA-120 and the organised structure of the party and a long history of charity work, but it would not dent the vote bank of PML-N and PTI considerably. The party has also dropped its manifesto at most of the houses of the constituency along with a special message of the chief of JuD, Hafiz Saeed, who is under house arrest these days.
Yaqoob Sheikh, the candidate of MML, hails from Ahl-e-Hadith school of thought and is currently chief coordinator at Difa-e-Pakistan Council and is also a former student of the King Saud University of Saudi-Arabia. Although his party talks about resolving the issues of the people ranging from education to clean drinking water in its manifesto, the people are so far not convinced to cast them vote.
Muhammad Zahid, a resident of Islampura, told Pakistan Today that NA-120 by-poll would be a two-party contest and “the real competition would be between PTI and PML-N as other candidates are just fulfilling a formality”. Talking about the religious parties, he said that our people do not trust religious people because of their bleak past.
“There is a religious seminary in our neighborhood which offers collective sacrifice on Eidul Azha, as it is a common practice in our society. I was astonished to see that the seminary collected the amount of eight sacrifices for a single cow despite the fact that Islam only allows seven,” he said and added that these are the real faces of these religious people who are busy defaming Islam, and now demanding a vote in the name of religion.
TLP chief Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi came in the limelight after the assassination of former governor Punjab Salman Taseer when Rizvi supported and openly defended, the act of Mumtaz Qadri who killed Taseer. He launched Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasul Allah at that time and staged several demonstrations and sit-ins demanding the release of Mumtaz Qadri.
Rizvi hails from ‘Barelvi’ school of thought and also runs several religious seminaries in the country. He has also served as a prayer leader at the shrine of Hazrat Pir Makki, adjacent to the shrine of Data Sahib, for many years and the shrine also falls in NA-120 where he has several followers.
Rizvi’s candidate Sheikh Azhar told Pakistan Today that TLP wants to implement the religion of the Holy Prophet in Pakistan. “We never supported sectarianism here and people from other sects also testify that we do not believe in sectarianism as we talk only of brotherhood that Islam teaches us,” he said and added that they will not allow anyone to abolish 295-C (blasphemy law) from the Constitution, and they urge the government to include Jesus and other prophets in this provision as well.
Naveed Attari, a follower of Dawat-e-Islami (DI) from UC-64 Revaz Garden told Pakistan Today that his organisation is non-political, therefore, he cannot cast vote to anyone. DI also believes in the Barelvi school of thought – the same to which Rizvi belongs and when asked that why he does not support Rizvi who hails from his own school of thoughts, he refused to comment.
Muhammad Waseem, a resident of Mohni Road said that the TLP chief has created problems for PML-N keeping in view his influence in the area as he has served as a prayer leader at a local shrine in the area. “At some time, the father of Provincial Minister Bilal Yasin was a devotee of Rizvi along with many notables from the area,” he added and concluded that Rizvi does not have any pro-people agenda as he is running the campaign only on religious slogans.
Surprisingly, the presence of JI felt missing in the area as their banners and flexes were far fewer than other religious parties despite the fact that JI is much older than these new comers. JI’s candidate Zia Ansari has also served as Union Council Chairman in the past and has also served as Nazim-e-Aala of Islami Jamiat Taliba Lahore, which is the student wing of JI.
Polling in NA-120 is scheduled for September 17, and it consists of the areas including Mozang, Bilal Gunj, Mohni Road, Islampura, Krishna Nagar, Old Anarkali, MAO College and Data Darbar.
