September 25, 2002	Wednesday	Rajab 17, 1423

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LAHORE, Sept 24: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazlur Rahman (JUI-F) has conditionally agreed to withdraw its candidate for NA-118, Hafiz Abdul Wadood, in favour of Jamaat-i-Islami’s (JI) Hafiz Salman Butt, who is contesting the polls from the PML-N platform.

The party wants three provincial assembly seats — PP-137, 144 and 150 — in return.

Party’s central information secretary Riaz Durrani told Dawn on phone here on Tuesday that a letter had been delivered to Lahore JI Amir Mian Maqsood to inform him of the decision, which was made at a meeting of local JUI-F leaders at the residence of Maulana Saifuddin Saif.

He said a committee comprising himself, Maulana Saif, Hafiz Athar and Qari Nazir had been formed for negotiations with the JI.

A meeting of the two components of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal is likely to be held on Wednesday. PML-N leadership will also be in attendance.

Sources said the JUI-F would be content with only one seat, PP-150, if its candidate Maulana Mohibbun Nabi was declared the unanimous nominee of the PML-N and the MMA for it. PML-N stalwart Mehr Ishtiaq is in the run for this seat.

JUI-F leaders feel that the party had withdrawn its candidate and enabled Mr Butt to get elected to the National Assembly once before, but was not rewarded.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the Jamaat-i-Islami is stressing upon Mr Butt to change his election symbol from “Tiger” to “Eagle” if the MMA does not agree to adopt him as its candidate. Tiger is the symbol of PML-N.

However, Mr Butt said that he had not received any instructions from the party high-ups in this regard.

He said that he was continuing his election campaign with Tiger as his symbol.

Ziauddin Ansari, a known lawyer of Jamaat-i-Islami, told Dawn that an application had been filed with the Election Commission for changing the symbol.

However, he said, the party was not pursuing the application and was waiting for the outcome of the MMA meeting on Wednesday.

Mr Ansari said there was no legal hitch in changing symbols, as some candidates had done so in the past even after printing of ballot papers. The Commission had conceded to such requests on condition that the candidate concerned would bear the cost of reprinting the ballots, he added.