ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: In contradiction to their own belief, the members of Muslim Students Organisation (MSO) on Friday held a rally to observe the martyrdom day of second caliph Hazrat Umar (RA) and demanded the government to declare 1st Muharram a national holiday.

MSO, a relatively new in the students’ politics, is a wing of banned group Ahle Sunnat Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ), which was the reincarnation of banned Sipah Sahaba Pakistan.

The rally, participated by a few dozen members of the MSO, was held from Lal Masjid to Aabpara chowk, where the speakers demanded of the government to declare national holiday on first Muharram, the day when second caliph was assassinated.

Incidentally, the elders of now banned Sipah Sahaba Pakistan, and its students wing the Sipah Sahaba Students had been advocating against taking out processions and rallies to mark Islamic events.

Even the deceased khatib of Lal Masjid Maulana Abdullah had lodged complaints with the city administration on several occasions against giving permissions to the rallies held on 12th Rabiul Awwal, and Muharram processions, on the grounds that such activities never took place during the time of any caliph.

When asked the spokesman of the MSO, Islamabad acknowledged that the religious processions might not be allowed in Islam, but said they were demanding the government to declare national holidays on the days when all the four caliphs departed from this world.

Speaking on the occasion, Malik Shafqat, Nazim MSO Punjab, claimed that his party was the representative of around 98 per cent people of Pakistan and said that if their demands were not accepted they would launch an agitation and bring all the cities to at standstill through wheel jam strikes.

“The government has declared national holiday to honour those who broke the country and responsible for creating Bangladesh,” Malik Shafqat said without naming the persons.

Meanwhile, social scientist Haris Khalique said that the current ASWJ policies were a contradiction of many of their original thoughts as they wanted to capture pubic space by all means.

He said that their version of ‘bidat’ or ‘haram’ was politically motivated.

SSP and some other religious parties were banned in 2002, by Musharaf regime for being involved in sectarian terrorism.

As a result of which, the group was apparently left out of public activities, therefore they started to take out rallies on religious occasions.

“The first time they broke their own taboo about rallies was in Karachi in 2003 when their members tried to take out a rally on 21st Ramzan to mark the martyrdom of Hazrat Ali,” said a senior member of Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqh Jaferia (TNFJ-Moosvi group), who did not want to be named fearing a terror attack.

He said: “SSP has a history of copying us and soon they will also be going for rallies on 12 Rabiul Awwal which are taken out jointly by Shia and Sunni to mark the birth of holy Prophet,”

He said that even the name MSO was a copy of the student wing of TNFJ that was Mukhtar Students Organisation, established in mid 1980s.

However, since ASWJ is also a banned group, its members did not take part in the rally and the party flag of old SSP was also not displayed.