LAHORE, Dec 30: Speakers at a meeting have called upon various factions of the Pakistan Muslim League to unite and revive the party which had achieved Pakistan under the leadership of the Quaid-i-Azam.

The meeting was held by the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Foundation and the Pakistan Movement Workers Trust at their auditorium here on Saturday to celebrate the centenary of the Muslim League which was founded by the eminent Muslim leaders of the sub-continent in Dhaka on Dec 30, 1906.

Former Senator and Supreme Court judge Dr Javid Iqbal said the Muslim League that had struggled for Pakistan and succeeded in its goal did not exist now.

He said while the revival of the Muslim League and unity of its various factions was an ideal proposition, “I doubt their leaders will ever come closer because of their differences and ego. They have no realisation of the importance of unity for Pakistan.”

Instead he suggested that the people should form a new Muslim League and its leadership should be taken from among the new generation as the (elder) leaders were unable to lead the party owing to their differences, age and lack of energy. They had failed to realise the vision of the Quaid-i-Azam who had laid down principles of federal parliamentary form of government for Pakistan, respect for human rights and the rule of law.

They had deviated from the principles and never bothered to implement them. He said if PML President Shujaat Husain had desired unity, he should have called on Mian Nawaz Sharif to discuss the possibility of uniting the factions instead of meeting PPP leader Benazir Bhutto during his recent visit to London.

Dr Javid Iqbal said credit must be given to the Muslim League of united India for taking two important decisions and getting them implemented which paved the way for making Pakistan a reality.

These decisions related to the separate electorates for the Muslim population and separation of Sindh from Bombay province along with constitutional safeguards for the NWFP and Balochistan.

While the separate electorates formed the basis of the two-nation theory for Pakistan, the separation of Sindh and constitutional safeguards for the NWFP and Balochistan paved their way to become part of Pakistan at a later stage and it provided their people the right to self-determination.

He said after the death of the Quaid and the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, the bureaucrats like Iskander Mirza, Chaudhry Muhammad Ali and Malik Ghulam Muhammad ruled over the country, followed by the military generals who intervened after every decade.

Veteran Muslim League leader Syed Ahmad Saeed Kirmani said the unity of various PML factions was not possible because of the strong differences among their leaders and lack of a united goal.

Each faction had its own vested interests and separate destination. Unity was possible only if there was political will and a feeling to come together which was missing in all PML factions.

He said the objectives of founding the Muslim League 100 years ago were to safeguard political rights of the Indian Muslims and representation of their interests in government, removal of misconceptions against the Muslims from the minds of the British rulers and cooperation with other Indian ‘nationalities’ for the interests of the Muslims.

He said with the exception of the objective of Muslim political rights, other objectives were not so laudable.

However, it was the beginning of the Muslim separatism which culminated in Pakistan as conceived by Dr Allama Iqbal and achieved by the Quaid-i-Azam after a great struggle.

He said for making Pakistan the Quaid had taken three major steps; he united the Muslims making them a nation from a disorganised and divided mob, provided them with intellectual and philosophical ground after the death of Iqbal and dispelled the feelings of hopelessness and pessimism from the Muslims who had thought that the British would hand over India to the Hindus after the World War II.

Nazaria-i-Pakistan Foundation chairman Majid Nizami, who presided over the meeting, said he had personally made efforts to unite the PML factions of Shujaat Husain and Nawaz Sharif and tried to persuade the latter when he met him in Jeddah a few years ago to opt for the unity.

But he could not make both the leaders reconcile and the matter ended. Instead

Nawaz Sharif and Ms Bhutto signed a Charter of Democracy, but “I have little hope that the latter will abide by the charter.”

He said the revival of Muslim League was essential for the stability, solidarity and integrity of Pakistan.

It was high time the youth came forward and took over the PML leadership to meet the future challenges.

Other speakers included Dr Rafique Ahmad, Col Amjad Husain (retired) and Prof Khalida Muniruddin Chughtai.