ISLAMABAD, June 7: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leadership on Tuesday unanimously confirmed its decision of continuing its boycott of the National Security Council (NSC), thereby averting what was termed a potential threat to the existence of the alliance. The NSC is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with President Pervez Musharraf in the chair.
The heads of parties in the MMA, who met with Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the chair, had one-point agenda — whether NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who is also the secretary general of the alliance, should attend the NSC meeting.
“The issue of the leader of opposition and the NWFP chief minister’s boycott of the NSC was discussed in detail. The meeting considered various options and decided to convene another meeting for a final decision on this issue on June 23. It was therefore unanimously decided that the MMA representatives will not attend the June 8 meeting of the NSC,” said a press release issued after the meeting.
Besides the heads of the parties, the June 23 meeting will also be attended by three representatives of each party, alliance sources said, adding that changing the alliance’s president was also on the cards.
When asked about the controversy over Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s letter of resignation from the presidentship of the alliance, Prof Sajid Mir told Dawn: “The real issue today was NSC and the alliance leadership, after discussing a number of options, decided by consensus that its representatives would not attend NSC meetings for the time being.”
However, a leader of the alliance said that the present office-bearers had completed their two-year tenures and the meeting decided to elect new office-bearers.
When asked whether the alliance would elect a new president or Qazi Hussain would withdraw his resignation, he claimed that the meeting had reposed confidence in the leadership of Qazi Hussain Ahmed and assured him of their full support.
MMA secretary general Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who has been trying hard to persuade the alliance leaders to decide in favour of attending the NSC meeting, was quoted as saying that Tuesday’s decision was only for the National Security Council’s meeting to be held on Wednesday.
The MMA meeting on Monday was attended by heads of three parties, Qazi Hussain of JI, Prof Sajid Mir of Jamiat Ahle Hadith and Maulana Fazlur Rahman of JUI-F, whereas Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (Noorani) was represented by its vice-president Sahibzada Abul Khair Muhammad Zubair and the Islami Tehrik by Allama Abdul Jalil Naqvi. The JUI-S remained unrepresented with its chief Maulana Samiul Haq continuing his boycott of the alliance.
Other participants included Liaquat Baloch and Pir Abdul Rahim Naqshbandi. Hafiz Hussain Ahmed did not attend the meeting and the reason for his absence could not be ascertained.
