LAHORE, Sept 17: Was the Jamaat-i-Islami serious in holding its annual congregation in Lahore on the first three days of October? Perhaps, not. This has been deduced from what a JI MPA from Rawalpindi said in the Punjab Assembly on Friday.

The JI planned to hold the congregation on the Minar-i-Pakistan lawns, mainly to mobilize workers from across the country. It was expected that some 300,000 people would participate in the gathering they were to be given guidelines for future.

MPA Ehsanullah Waqas stood on a point of order to tell the house that the Jamaat had not been allowed to hold the congregation in Lahore, despite the fact that ruling party president Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had given separate assurances to the JI leadership.

Now the party has decided to hold the meeting in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP where the MMA is in power. He regretted that the city government had no objection to "melas" where even gamblers were free to take part, as pointed out by PPP's Samiullah Khan, but it did not allow a religio-political party to hold its meeting planned long ago.

But his colleague from Rawalpindi, Muhammad Waqas, was fuming. "Had we been serious, even their father would not have been able to refuse permission", Dr Waqas said, providing the critics with ample justification to hit back at the self-contradictory remark of the JI lawmaker.

"This is an open war against the Jamaat. The government will have to pay a heavy price for what it has done. The government has stopped us from holding a constitutional and democratic event, now we will speak against Gen Musharraf and his uniform", said the bespectacled young leader who has been elected a member of the legislature for the first time.

Waqas threatened that in case Gen Musharraf did not hang up his uniform by the set date, the Jamaat would hold a march on Islamabad. Law Minister Raja Basharat, for whom such utterances were not new, paid the JI legislator in the same coin.

"The way he has talked, speaks a lot of the way his party has trained him", he said, reacting to the JI leader's speech. He pointed out that the JI leader said the congregation would now be held in Peshawar and in the same breath he threatened that "even their father will not be able to stop us".

"Subhan Allah", said the law minister, looking sarcastically at Mr Waqas. The legislator from Rawalpindi felt embarrassed in his seat. He blushed -- and kept silent.

Lahore's Ehsanullah Waqas, however, asked the minister to see why the district Nazim refused permission when the president of the ruling party and the Punjab chief minister had given the JI assurance that it would be allowed to hold its congregation.

Deputy Speaker Shaukat Mazari allowed the house a brief "mushaira" break to release tensions. Ruling party's Dr Samia Amjad and PPP's Nazim Shah read some couplets. PML's Chaudhry Sibghatullah also took part.

The remaining house saw the exercise as silent spectators as if all of them were philistines. PPP's Azma Bukhari said it was a waste of time. She said it was deplorable that the chair did not allow most of the female legislators to speak while he had allowed time for a mushaira. The Punjab, she said, faced many problems which needed immediate attention and "mushaira" could be of little help to grapple with them.

The comment provoked her party colleague Syed Nazim Husain Shah from Multan. He said women legislators must bear in mind that male lawmakers had elected them. In the house, he said, female legislators were like other members. "If they consider themselves housewives, they should stay back home with their husbands". Azma retaliated, but her comments were not audible.