LAHORE, Dec 5: The constituents of the ‘defunct’ Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) plan to try to revive the alliance as leaders of the six components met informally here on Friday.

“The decision to sit together was to create harmony among all sects in the country in Muharram to prevent anti-social elements from taking any advantage in the wake of the Mumbai mayhem,” Hafiz Husain Ahmad, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader told a press conference.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan Secretary General Qari Zawwar Bahadur, Pir Ijaz Hashmi and Islami Tehrik’s Allama Jalil Naqvi were also present.

Mr Ahmad said that immediately after the Mumbai incident, rioting in Karachi on linguistic and ethnical bases had given rise to fears of a conspiracy for a war among various sects during Muharram.

Like in the past, the MMA would work for harmony among all sects in the country, he added.A strategy in this regard would be made public shortly as leaders of all the constituents would come together at a seminar being held in Lahore on Dec 28 to mark the death anniversary of first MMA chairman Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, he said.

He demanded that the government end army operations in the NWFP and Balochistan and regretted that a unanimous resolution of parliament to the effect had been ignored.

He said that Islamabad’s statement about the withdrawal of forces from western borders and deploying them to the eastern ones in case of rising tensions with New Delhi had changed the aggressive tones of both India and the US. He said the present political dispensation had failed to come up to the expectations of the masses.

He demanded that institutions be empowered and made independent and that their decisions be given preference over personal decisions.

He said that there existed a soft corner among all the MMA constituents about the revival of the alliance and its results would be visible soon.