KARACHI, April 4: A meeting of the Supreme Council of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal is scheduled for April 8 in Karachi to elect a new president, the office which fell vacant after the death of Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani who before his death headed the six-party alliance.
According to the President of MMA Karachi, Hafiz Muhammad Taqi, the meeting besides electing a president will deliberate on the political situation prevailing in the country, including "increasing US influence" in the country, soaring prices, increasing unemployment and the ongoing army operation in the tribal areas of the country.
The meeting will also review the possible outcome of the public meetings to be addressed by the MMA leaders in Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Hyderabad on April 5, 6 and 7, respectively.
Circles close to the MMA are not very optimistic about the outcome of the moot if differences between the alliance partners are not sorted out beforehand. These differences, which are termed internal matters, are over representation of the smaller parties in the NWFP government and the performance of the alliance's acting president, Qazi Hussain Ahmad.
Insiders say that the main issue before the meeting will not be resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned because the leader of one of the six constituent parties, Prof Sajid Mir, will be in Sargodha where an All-Pakistan Ahl-i-Hadith conference is planned for the same date.
This indicated that the moot had not been planned in consultation with the heads of all the parties in the alliance, they said. This also vindicated the stand of Maulana Samiul Haque, chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, that the alliance had become hostage to two parties, namely Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Maulana Samiul Haque, who has remained absent from three consecutive sessions of the MMA Supreme Council, also does not appear too keen to attend the meeting unless the MMA high command approaches him and sorts out the differences beforehand.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the secretary general of the alliance, is abroad. But, according to JUI leader Qari Muhammad Usman, Maulana Fazlur Rehman will reach Karachi by April 4. He will fly to Sukkur where he will join other leaders in leading a big procession from Sukkur to Kashmore.
This procession will mark the beginning of a mass contact drive for launching a movement against the internal and external policies of the Musharraf government, including the ongoing Wana operation, he pointed out.
Before the Supreme Council meeting, the MMA leaders were due to address big public meetings in Jacobabad on April 5, Shikarpur on April 6 and Hyderabad on April 7.
The MMA top leadership would have to face up to other issues which are no less important, like small parties' representation in the NWFP government, the performance of the MMA government led by JUI-F Chief Minister Durrani who is being accused of not taking the JI ministers into confidence before taking vital decisions.
Some political observers are of the view that the JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad, who is the acting chief of the alliance, had been keeping the alliance intact through damage control diplomacy. Despite differences between the NWFP chief minister and his own partymen in the cabinet, Qazi Sahib did not allow the ministers from his party to make their grievances public.
The survival of the alliance and its re-emergence in the next local bodies and general elections depends on building bridges of confidence among the constituent parties. The observers said that this policy was being followed in the NWFP.
However, how the top MMA leadership is going to satisfy Maulana Samiul Haque, who runs one of the most important seminaries in the NWFP, remains to be seen. His drift away from MMA will not augur well for the six-party alliance, they said.
