22 October 2004	Friday	07 Ramazan 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: The deputy parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and deputy chief of the JUI-F, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, on Thursday said the MMA's central executive committee was the only policy-making body and all provincial organizations were bound to abide by its decisions.

In reply to a query during a combined opposition's press conference, Hafiz Hussain refuted press reports that a meeting of the provincial JUI-F had been held in Peshawar to discuss the NSC issue and give an advice to Chief Minister Akram Durrani to attend the forthcoming NSC meeting.

The MMA's parliamentary group and the four provincial office-bearers had last week decided in principle that Maulana Fazlur Rahman as leader of the opposition and the NWFP chief minister will not attend the NSC meeting convened on Oct 26.

Mr Ahmed said MNA Maulana Ataur Rahman, brother of Maulana Fazlur Rahman and deputy secretary-general of the JUI-F, has just returned from Peshawar and was unaware of any such meeting.

According to some press reports, a JUI-F meeting held in the NWFP had rejected Hafiz Hussain Ahmed's statement on the NWFP chief minister's proposed abstention from the NSC meeting and suggested that he must participate in its proceedings to defend and watch interests of the province.

The reports said the provincial leadership meeting of the JUI-F held, with its provincial president Maulana Amanullah Khan in the chair, in Peshawar had proposed to the provincial chief minister not to skip the NSC meeting, which it observed was demand of his office.

The report said that after discussing the issue in detail, it held that the opposition's rejection of the NSC before its act was passed by parliament might be correct, but when the council had become a reality, all its members were bound to attend it.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed insisted that the MMA had taken a principled stand that its representatives on the NSC should not attend it because the alliance did not recognize the council as a constitutional body.