LAHORE, March 28: A conference of religious parties on Sunday declared the defeat of Pakistan's cricket team in One-dayers at the hands of India as 'engineered' and said it was done to help Prime Minister Vajpayee in his election campaign.

The conference, organized by MMA's constituent JUP to pay tribute to the late party president Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani at the Minar-i-Pakistan lawns, claimed that the modus operandi of the cricket series had been decided during the last Saarc conference held in Islamabad.

"It was a political move and a conspiracy against the ideology of Pakistan," says one of the resolutions adopted by the conference. Earlier, speakers at a conference paid glowing tributes to the late Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani for his services to Islam and Pakistan.

The Imam Noorani conference was organized by the JUP, the party of the late religio-political leader, at the Minar-i-Pakistan lawns. Those who spoke included JUP President Shah Faridul Haq, JUI's Hafiz Husain Ahmad, PML-N's Khwaja Saad Rafiq and Jamaat-i-Islami's Hafiz Idrees.

They recalled the role of the late Noorani in the inclusion of Islamic clauses in the 1973 Constitution and in the Nizam-i-Mustafa movement in 1977. His efforts for uniting various schools of thought on a single platform of Milli Yakjehti Council and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal were also acknowledged.

Mr Haq on this occasion criticized the government for working on the 'US agenda' and compromising on the Kashmir issue. He warned the rulers that the US was the most dangerous terrorist state, which would take on Pakistan's nuclear programme after 'settling' Iran and Libya issues.

Gen K M Azhar (retired) accused Gen Pervez Musharraf of being coward and, thus, losing any justification to rule the country. Pir Ijaz Hashmi said Maulana Noorani wanted to launch a mass movement against Gen Musharraf and a decisive war against pro-US rulers after an Islamic and democratic revolution in the attitude of the masses.

Khwaja Saad Rafiq said his party could not compromise with the elements, who had violated the constitution and damaged the ideology of Pakistan. He stressed the need for uniting all parties for launching a joint struggle against these anti-Pakistan people.

Hafiz Husain Ahmad pledged that the MMA would remain intact despite conspiracies against it. Referring to the Wana army operation, he said it were the tribesmen and not the army, who had waged a war for the independence of Kashmir from the clutches of India.

But, he regretted, these valiant people were not being targeted in an operation being launched at the behest of foreign powers. Hafiz Idrees said the late JUP leader had always been inviting the masses towards unity against the troika of America, Israel and India.

Qari Zawwar Bahadur, the conference in-charge, said all those who had abandoned the party because of any reason could rejoin it without tendering any apology or giving explanation. He also directed all the units' office-bearers to send their monthly activity reports to the provincial office so that the central leadership could be informed about the political situation in their areas.

The conference passed 13 resolutions, acknowledging Maulana Noorani's services, condemning new world conspiracies against Muslims and their victimization in the so-called war on terror, and uncalled for attack on Iraq.

It also took exception to the Wana operation, exclusion of the Quranic verses from syllabi, alleged roll back of nuclear programme and the government's failure to check price-hike and control lawlessness.