KARACHI, Dec 18: The Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami and parliamentary party leader of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in National Assembly, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, has said that Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) lost an opportunity to form governments, both at the Centre and in Sindh, because of the stubborn attitude of its leadership. He was talking to newsmen on his arrival at the Quaid-i-Azam International Airport here on Wednesday.

He also criticized defection by certain members, including a woman, of the Sindh Assembly to help form a government in the province.

He said that the MMA’s supreme council, which met in Peshawar on Tuesday, unanimously decided not to cast their vote of confidence in favour of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. The council, he added, had also decided to sit on opposition benches in the national assembly.

“We had extended conditional support to him (Jamali) with a view to safeguard democracy and protect his government from blackmailing,” he said.

The MMA leader, referring to the ruling clique’s role in Sindh assembly and, what he called, ‘rigged election of the Deputy Speaker’ said that these events had prompted the alliance to oppose the Jamali government and move to the opposition benches in the National Assembly.

He reiterated the claimed that the MMA candidate, Abdul Rehman Rajput, had been elected unopposed as the Deputy Speaker of the Sindh Assembly as no rival had filed nomination papers for the slot within the stipulated time.

“By extending the time to file nomination papers, the PML-Q not only violated sanctity of the House but also bulldozed democratic traditions,” he said.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed observed that the judges of superior courts should take oath afresh and pointed out that the Constitution had not yet been restored fully.

He reaffirmed the MMA’s pledge to continue opposing the Legal Framework Order and the struggle for the establishment of a transparent democracy in the country.

The Amir of JI, Karachi, Dr Merajul Huda Siddiqui, an MMA member of the National Assembly, Abdul Sattar Afghani, deputy parliamentary leader of the alliance in Sindh, Nasarullah Shajee, besides the office-bearers of Pakistan Business Forum, were among those who welcomed the MMA chief at the airport. — APP/PPI