HARIPUR, June 13: Differences between the leadership of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F (JUI-F) over the issue of attending the meeting of the National Security Council by the leader of opposition, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani seem to have permeated to the lower cadres of the two allied parties in Haripur.
A standoff between the district president of JUI-F, Pir Syed Alamzeb Shah, and Tehsil Nazim Iftekhar Ahmad Khan over a piece of land in Khalabat Township has fuelled tension in the area and has also brought the differences between the leadership of district chapters of the MMA’s component religious parties out into the open.
It may be added here that there was a dispute regarding a 22-kanal plot of land at the Main Chowk Khalabat Township which JUI-F’s Pir Alamzeb claimed that it was meant for a mosque and madrassa when in the early ‘70s people affected by the construction of the Tarbela dam were resettled in the Khalabat Township. The Tehsil nazim and his group claimed that the plot, which had a market value of millions, was earmarked for Eidgah and a playground but the former was bent upon grabbing and occupying land for his personal madrassa.
A group of union nazims and supporters of the Tehsil nazim also took out a procession on June 4 and pelted the police with stones and injured a constable while five civilians also sustained wounds when the police resorted to baton charge and teargas-shelling.
JI’s local leadership initially remained neutral but later the leadership of both the JI and JUI-F started hurling allegations against each other.
JI’s local leader Ghulam Nabi clarified that the matter did not relate entirely to the leadership of the MMA but rather it was an issue of one person. He criticized the leadership of the JI for not taking him into confidence.
The matter regarding the ownership of the piece of land was now subjudice but the fissures between the ranks of the two main stakeholders of the MMA are suggestive of the discomfort and tensions both the parties are going through. Their fragile relationship has been further exposed to political vulnerabilities.
ACCORD CANCELLED: The federal environment ministry, in a surprise move, has cancelled agreements made with six civil society organizations for carrying out plantation.
The EPA, Islamabad, had published advertisements in different national dailies in Aug 2003, seeking proposals from interested NGOs for plantation in their respective areas.
The step was taken in line with a decision of the United Nations and other international bodies to observe 2005 as the year of environment with a worldwide slogan “Green Cities— Plan for the Planet”.
Sources said NGOs had been asked to submit their proposals with their respective provincial EPAs by Sept 15, 2003. Out of the NGOs submitting their proposals, six, one each from Haripur, Gilgit, Swabi, Muzaffarabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi, were short-listed. An agreement was signed on Sept 27, 2004, promising to assign them the task of plantation of over 100,000 saplings in their respective areas.
Sources at the office of the Sustainable Development Vision Hattar told that despite completion of preliminary procedures and requirements incurring thousands of rupees, the ministry of environment cancelled all the agreements on May 25 this year. The ministry has asked the NGOs to re-submit their proposals when the ministry publishes advertisements again.
NGOs, criticizing the decision of the ministry, have termed it a bureaucratic trick.