June 7, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 6, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LAHORE / ISLAMABAD, June 6: MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F) will quit the coalition government in Balochistan if the Centre takes any action against the NWFP government.

The warning was conveyed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman on telephone to Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, JUI sources told Dawn on Friday.

They said that the MMA leader also warned that if the federal government did not come to terms despite a flexible attitude adopted by the six-party religious conglomerate on various issues, talks between the two sides would come to an end.

The JUI sources said that the MMA had already gone out of the way to make an offer to President Gen Pervez Musharraf that the alliance would help him become civilian president if he gave up the office of the army chief.

“We did not offer Gen Musharraf a year in the office as army chief. Instead, we were requested by the government’s negotiators to accept him in his military uniform for the period,” the sources claimed.

They said that the MMA had also shown flexibility in its stand on the discretionary powers of the president, the formation of the National Security Council and the system of city district governments to pave way for an agreement with the federal government.

“We are willing to accept the fact that the army is a powerful institution. But, it should also reciprocate by giving due importance to the MMA’s position. Such an attitude is imperative to find a solution,” the sources said.

A JUI leader from Balochistan, Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, had also asked the NWFP chief minister not to succumb to the federal government’s pressure.

The JUI has 18 members in the Balochistan Assembly and in case it withdraws support, the PML-Q government in the province would find itself in difficulty.

In a related development, Jamaat-i-Islami secretary Syed Munawwar Hasan said at a news conference on Friday that President Musharraf should step down as army chief by Aug 14 or face a movement against him.

After the deadline, he said, the MMA would withdraw its offer to help him get elected as a civilian president.

ADDRESS AT MOSQUE: Speaking at a Friday congregation in Islamabad Maulana Fazlur Rehman demand the replacement of NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain.

He said that after giving statements and criticizing the provincial government at press conference, the governor had become a party and lost impartiality. Therefore an impartial person should be appointed to replace him, he demanded.

He alleged that the Centre had adopted an aggressive posture on the directives of the US against the NWFP government for passing the Shariat Bill in the provincial assembly.

About the resignations of the NWFP district Nazims, he said that it was just to pressurize the MMA over the LFO issue, else the resignations should have been submitted with the provincial chief executive not the president of the country.

The MMA leader, who is also the chief of his own faction of the JUI, said that filing of a writ petition with the Supreme Court was also meant to force the six-party alliance to accept the LFO in its present form.

He requested the apex court not to entertain the petition, challenging the educational qualifications of the MMA parliamentarians, as the alliance did not intend to hire services of any lawyer for it.

The judges of the higher courts, he alleged, were bribed by the military government by giving them unconstitutional and illegal extension in the retirement age.