20 March 2004	Saturday	28 Muharram 1425

ISLAMABAD, March 19: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Supreme Council will hold a meeting here on Saturday morning to discuss the ongoing military operation in Wana , South Waziristan Agency, internal differences within the alliance and a possible course of action to protest against various government policies.

The alliance, threatened by a certain split, has failed to overcome serious differences among its important member parties, especially sour relations between JUI-S and Jamiat-i-Ahl-i-Hadith (JAH).

Alliance deputy parliamentary leader and JUI-F senior leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed claimed on Friday that both Prof Sajid Mir (JAH) and Maulana Samiul Haq (JUI-S), who had not attended the last two meetings of the MMA Supreme Council, will attend the Saturday's meeting.

He said Qazi Hussain Ahmed had met Prof Sajid Mir to get his assurance and he had confirmed his participation in the meeting whereas Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, MNA, had held out an assurance that his father, Senator Maulana Samiul Haq, would be coming to Islamabad to attend the meeting.

However, no one from Maulana Samiul Haq's camp was available to confirm this claim. The religious parties alliance, which last met on March 6 and 7, had formed a high-powered committee comprising alliance President Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rahman and others to persuade Maulana Samiul Haq and Prof Sajid Mir to end differences and participate in MMA activities.

However, this committee has so far failed to hold a single meeting as Maulana Samiul Haq is said to have deliberately avoided making himself available to this committee.

Talking to Dawn Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that the main topic of MMA's Saturday meeting would be Wana operation as in its opinion a very dangerous situation was being created at the behest of the US by pitting the Pakistan Army against the tribesmen.

He said though the alliance was trying to show maximum patience in these testing times as it was avoiding a direct confrontation with the government on the Wana issue, President Musharraf, in his opinion, had caused great damage to the national image by accepting all false allegations levelled against Pakistan by Western countries and their media.

He criticised the president for giving a false lead to the Western media by admitting that Osama bin Laden's close lieutenant Ayman Al-Zawahiri had been surrounded in Wana.

Mr Ahmed warned the government against blindly bombing and strafing tribal areas as it would kill innocent people and, as a result, engage the Pakistan Army in war against its own people.