PESHAWAR, March 10: In a sign of intensifying rifts within the Muttahida Majlis-I-Amal, a close aide to the Jamaat-i-Islami chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, on Wednesday accused the NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani of concentrating too much powers in his hands and ignoring his allies.

The latest attack on Chief Minister Durrani came from no less a person than the son of the JI amir and his special assistant, Asif Luqman Qazi, at a press conference in Nowshera.

He threatened that Jamaat's ministers were under pressure to resign if the chief minister did not change his policies. Mr Luqman's accusations followed a statement by a JI MNA from Peshawar, Sabir Awan, who criticised the chief minister for making arbitrary decisions and ignoring allies.

The latest controversy has been sparked by the recent appointment of 10 law officers, nine of whom are from the JUI-F and only one from the Jamaat. The JUI-F has defended the appointment and accused the JI of bringing in its party workers into Zakat committees.

In what appears to be the result of growing differences between two major components of the MMA, the provincial cabinet, which was scheduled to meet on Wednesday, could not hold its meeting.

A spokesperson for the chief minister said the meeting had been postponed because Mr Durrani had to rush to Islamabad for an important engagement. However, the chief minister, who was in Peshawar could not be approached for comments. The JI-affiliated ministers also were not unavailable for comments on reports that they were considering to resign from the cabinet.

Asif Luqman Qazi said that his party was not satisfied with the 15-month performance of the provincial government which, he added, had failed to work out any clear strategy for the welfare of the people.

He said the people had voted the MMA into power to break the status quo, but regretted that the provincial government "because of its ineptness" was transforming the alliance's political victory into a failure.

"This is the reason why there is growing pressure from party workers on the Jamaat-i-Islami ministers to resign from the cabinet", he said. He said that the concentration of powers in the hands of a single individual was creating practical complications while the chief minister had failed to create a system of checks and balances within the government and the parliamentary party.