ISLAMABAD, July 12: The top leaders of the JUI-F and the Jamaat-i-Islami — the two key component parties in the MMA which rules the NWFP — held an in-house consultative meeting here on Friday to discuss issues concerning the provincial government.

MMA’s vice-president and parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the alliance’s secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and senior provincial minister Sirajul Haq participated in the meeting.

According to insiders, it discussed the threat posed to the alliance’s government in the NWFP in case the talks in Islamabad aimed at reconciliation do not make any headway.

The NWFP chief minister, who arrived here on Thursday and held lengthy negotiations with Maulana Fazlur Rahman on some ‘sensitive’ issues, extended his stay for consultations.

Sources saw a link between Mr Durrani’s ‘hard talks’ with the MMA top brass and the meeting he had held last month with Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali. The PM had asked him to play a role in the reconciliation effort.

On Friday, the talks were also joined in by Qazi Hussain Ahmed and NWFP’s senior minister Sirajul Haq.

“The meeting also reviewed the provincial government’s performance and focused on finding ways and means for improving it,” the sources said.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman, whose party is senior partner in the Frontier government, refused to divulge details of the meeting, saying, “it was purely our internal meeting details of which cannot be shared with anyone”.

Earlier, it may be recalled, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who was accompanied by his party’s vice-president and MMA’s deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, had on Thursday contacted Qazi Hussain Ahmed by telephone, and asked him to reach the federal capital for the meeting.

The sources claimed the meeting also addressed issues on which the two partners had developed some differences, especially with regard to the running of Frontier government’s affairs.

The sources disclosed to Dawn that efforts at weakening and dislodging the religio-political alliance’s government had been stepped up in the aftermath of the opposition’s increased pressure on the federal government.

“Some of the MMA MPAs have started showing anxiety and disenchantment with the treatment meted out to them by the provincial government and they may have difficulty resisting political enticement,” a source claimed.

The MMA’s senior leadership also pondered over the financial wranglings, particularly the delay in the payment of outstanding amounts by Wapda.