LAHORE: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) — the recently revived alliance of religio-political parties — held its first election-related activity by holding a public meeting at the Minar-i-Pakistan lawns here on Sunday.

It was an all-male show as women activists were not invited to the event. Activists of each of the five constituents carried flags of their political parties and not of the alliance, giving an impression that the unity being showed by the alliance leadership is yet to trickle down to its rank and file.

The MMA leaders, representing all major religio-political parties, were unanimous in condemning interest-based economy, blaming the United States and its “local agents” for all ills facing the country and Ummah and promising to introduce an economic system based on equal distribution of national resources.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, president of the MMA and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, described disorder as the biggest world problem and said Muslims all over the world, particularly in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, were being bombed by the US, though it claimed to be a champion of human rights.

Pledging to establish an independent Islamic welfare state with a transparent government, he said Pakistan could not be considered a free country when the International Monetary Fund gripped the national economy and foreign powers were pushing their agenda into the local politics and politicians were bowing before their foreign masters.

He promised to introduce the best economic system in the country, ensuring rights of minorities, jobs for unemployed youth and education and health facilities for the people.

MMA leader and Jamaat-i-Islami emir Sirajul Haq said the coalition would first eliminate usury from the country as the economy could not flourish under the interest-based system.

He said their fight was against injustice, poverty and unemployment, and not against any individual.

He also spoke of Kashmir freedom movement and atrocities being faced by the Kashmiris in their struggle.

He promised employment for the jobless, elimination of poverty, protection of rights of women and minorities and promotion of sports.

Islami Tehreek chief and MMA vice president Allama Sajid Naqvi said that since the law and order situation in the country was poor, improving it would be the first priority if the MMA was voted to power.

He asked the MMA workers to take the alliance’s message to the doorstep of voters by launching a full-throttled campaign after Ramazan.

He said the religious forces would continue their support for the Kashmiris and Palestinians.

Promising equality in the distribution of national resources, JI’s Liaquat Baloch urged the masses to support the MMA for economic development and prosperity. He said that plundered national wealth would be brought back to eliminate poverty. He announced holding of MMA’s power shows in all major towns of the country and predicted that the alliance would give better election results than in 2002.

JUI-F general secretary Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri claimed that public mandate had been stolen in the 2013 elections, but such an attempt would be foiled in the 2018 polls.

He lamented that 15 million children in the country were out of school while seminaries which were providing education to hundreds of thousands of students free of cost were being labelled as centres of ignorance.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan president Pir Ijaz Hashmi said through the alliance the religious forces rejected takfeeri slogans and presented a concept of collective leadership.

He said Saudi Arabia and Iran could also learn a lesson from the MMA and resolve their differences.

MMA information secretary Shah Awais Noorani claimed that the MMA would rule the country from Karachi to Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2018