LAHORE, Nov 10: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) is apprehensive about the reported withdrawal of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) president Makhdoom Amin Faheem from the race for the office of prime minister, feeling that the move is aimed at sabotaging its talks with the PML(Q) for formation of government in the centre.

“The PPP has shown this card to detract our negotiations with the Q-League, which are in final stages,” claimed Amirul Azim, the central information secretary of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), which is the second major component of the six-party religious alliance.

Mr Azim said the PPP had given the MMA a 15-point charter of demands for cooperation in government formation. However, the document did not contain the name of the alliance and instead mentioned the All Parties Conference (APC) as the second party to the agreement, he told Dawn here on Sunday.

The document had exposed the PPP’s compulsion to avoid religious parties due to its stakes in the western world. It was for this reason that the word APC was used instead of the MMA in the charter of demands, he added.

This reporter contacted at least a dozen PPP leaders and MNAs-elect, but not a single one of them admitted that the party had made any commitment with the MMA with regard to Maulana Fazl’s bid for prime minister’s slot.

Maulana Fazl and the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan had been giving the impression for the last few days that the PPP had agreed to support the MMA candidate in principle and a formal announcement to this effect would be made in a day or two.

Meanwhile, relations between the JI and the Maulana-Fazl-led JUI-F — which is the largest component of the MMA — have turned soar over the issue of government formation. Leaders of the two parties are said to be bickering with each other in private, although they would not admit the fact in public.

Five of the six constituents of the MMA are in favour of sitting in the opposition instead of striking deals with the other two players in the power game — the PPP and the PMl(Q) — on conditions that might hurt the alliance image among the masses. They feel that the future prime minister would not have much control over various government’s policies and would not be able to implement the MMA manifesto in the presence of a powerful president.

However, the ambitious JUI-F chief wants to avail the chance of becoming prime minister of the country even if the MMA has to sacrifice some of its principles. According to reports, he is more interested in the personal race for premiership instead of the politics of issues.

On the other hand, the other five MMA components, the Jamaat, the JUP led by Maulana Noorani, the JUI(S) of Maulana Samiul Haq, Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith of Prof Sajid Mir and Islami Tehrik of Allama Sajid Naqvi, are more interested in compromising with the army government on the issues of Legal Framework Order, National Security Council, president in uniform, etc.

These differences led the MMA supreme council to nominate Qazi Husain Ahmad as its parliamentary leader, although it had earlier fielded Maulana Fazl as a candidate for the office of prime minister. Some of the JUI-F leaders walked out of the council meeting as a mark of protest against the decision which, they said, could weaken the position of Mr Fazl in the race for the top slot.