LAHORE, May 22: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal decided to boycott the all-parties conference, convened by the army government in Islamabad on Wednesday, on the insistence of three leaders of the six-party alliance.

Sources say Qazi Husain Ahmad (Jamaat-i-Islami), Maulana Fazlur Rahman (JUI) and Prof Sajid Mir (JAH) were opposed to attending the APC though the other leaders were of the opinion that the step would go against the interests of the MMA.

The government, it was learnt, had been contacting Qazi Husain even before the APC organized by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan on Sunday last, and offering him to have a one-on-one meeting with Gen Pervez Musharraf. But the Qazi refused for he believed that it would be an exercise in futility in the presence of basic differences between the two parties.

Admitting that saying no to the government’s APC was a difficult decision, Jamaat naib amir Liaquat Baloch said sometimes political parties had to take bitter decisions but the outcome of these decisions had been better for the nation.

He argued that had the anti-government parties attended the APC any disagreement on certain points could have resulted in a bitterness, thus spoiling the primary objective of the moot.

He, however, emphasized that there was no difference in the “frequency” of politico-religious parties and the army over the defence of the country.