October 25, 2002	Friday	Sha’aban 18,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: The Supreme Council of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), in its meeting held here on Thursday, again failed to reach an understanding as to which political party/parties it should ally with for the formation of a coalition government or to opt for sitting on opposition benches in the National Assembly.

MMA President Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani, who chaired the meeting, told a news conference that as far as the alliance was concerned it would not compromise on its candidate for the prime minister, Maulana Fazlur Rahman.

He evaded a question by a foreign journalist whether the MMA would continue to cooperate with the United States agencies in flushing out the members of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, and said: “This question has time and again been repeated and we have replied to it.”

MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Vice President Qazi Hussain also replied newsmen’s questions.

Maulana Samiul Haq, Allama Sajid Naqvi, Liaquat Baloch, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and some MNAs-elect were also present on the occasion.

The alliance assigned the job of negotiations on coalition with other political parties to Noorani after it listened to the report of the four-member parliamentary coordination committee it had earlier set up.

The members of the Noorani committee are: Liaquat Baloch, Pir Ijaz Hashmi, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri and Qazi Abdul Latif.

The MMA expressed its concern over what it termed deliberate attempts of delaying the National Assembly session, and demanded of the government to immediately convene the session along with a schedule for elections on reserved seats for women, Ulema and technocrats as also for the Senate.