LAHORE: The Jamaat-i-Islami continued “refreshing faith of its followers and renewing their commitment to the political cause” here on Saturday, with thousands attending its convention on it second day that looks more like a huge tent village at Minar-i-Pakistan.

Though one does not realise the enormity – both numerical and infrastructural – of the convention unless one actually enters the premises, it is certainly huge. Thousands, including large number women and children are sleeping in tents, all passages between the tents filled with participants walking to different parts of the venue and still more listening to their leaders in the main area for, what a participant called, “refresher course in faith.”

The venue, that most political parties take pride even in partial filling, was brimming with participants. Entrances to huge tents set up by the participants coming from different parts of the country carry the name of their area. The passage are filled with different stalls, selling everything – from regional sweets to clothes from different parts of the country, jackets, pullovers, rosaries and eatables. Trucks continued commuting between tents to ensure supply of food to each participant.

The young party workers in ‘commandos’ attire, manned every part of the venue to ensure security, but being polite and courteous.

“It is certainly going to be the last convention here,” said one of the organisers. “The venue has fallen short of our expectations and people, even women, had to sleep on the roads as we ran out of space last night. The area spared for ablution is getting overcrowded and so are spaces for prayers. We are using greenbelts around the venue’s boundary walls as extension of convention to accommodate participants, but still running out of space.

Next time, the JI would choose a bigger and better place,” he claimed.

The contingents from Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were large enough to make their presence felt in an otherwise overcrowded place. The JI only accentuated its intellectual tradition by putting up stalls selling publications containing research conducted by its scholars on various issues.

Professionals – lawyers and doctors – also put up camps, and the JI did not forget youth; in a camp, right on one of the entrances, ‘ideological’ music was being played, reminding the youth that it had take control of the nation’s destiny.

JI secretary-general Liaqat Baloch presented a report on Jamaat’s performance over the last six years (since the last Ijtema in 2008), and said the JI’s message was spreading all over the country and “the day was not far when its efforts would bear fruit in the shape of an Islamic revolution.”

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2014