LAHORE, Sept 3: A split in the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal is imminent as Prof Sajid Mir, head of one of the six constituents of the religious parties alliance, has refused to oblige Jamaat-i-Islami amir Qazi Husain Ahmad by shunning his differences with the MMA leadership.

The Qazi and Jamaat’s naib amir Liaquat Baloch had separately rang Mr Mir on Monday night to persuade him attend the Lahore-Karachi train march scheduled for Sept 7 as well as the summit meeting of the MMA to be held a few hours before the march late night on Sept 6, it is learnt.

They also apologized to the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith chief “for any heart burning caused by distribution of tickets or by any colleague in the alliance.”

But Mr Mir told the Qazi during their half an hour conversation that “solo flight” of the JI and the JUP was a matter of concern for him and not the tickets issue.

Prof Mir did not respond to Qazi Husain’s request for participating in the summit meeting as well as the train march.

Sources say the MJAH chief, who usually spends Fridays and Saturdays in his hometown Sialkot, is unlikely to oblige the Jamaat amir for, as usual, he would be in Sialkot on Sept 6, 7.

He had not earlier turned up for the Rawalpindi-Lahore train march and the subsequent summit meeting held in Lahore on Aug 28.

The first seed of contention was sown in the MMA when Qazi Husain left a summit meeting held in Islamabad last month and went to meet President Gen Pervez Musharraf without taking into confidence other colleagues except JUP chief and alliance president Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, the sources say.

The MJAH, a long time ally of the PML led by Nawaz Sharif who had been ousted by Gen Musharraf, got suspicious and it started drifting itself away from the MMA, they add.

The JI complains that the MJAH leadership has made adjustments with the PML(N) for its nominees, ignoring the case of other MMA constituents.

“Prof Sajid Mir has reached a point of no return and he is unlikely to stay within the MMA folds beyond Sept 7,” they claimed.