ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: The strife-stricken Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on Monday ‘bid farewell’ to Maulana Samiul Haq, head of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, and nominated Pir Abdur Rahim Naqshbandi and Qari Gul Rahman, MNA, to represent the party in the alliance.
The Maulana, who has not been attending the MMA supreme council meetings for quite some time had accepted the chairmanship of National Assembly and Senate standing committees without the consent of the alliance, was said to have been removed as party president and supplanted by Pir Abdul Rahim Naqshbandi, who will represent the JUI-S in the future.
The MMA was undecided about whether to take a suitable action against the Maulana for violating the alliance’s discipline, and instead supported a coup within the party.
The MMA supreme council, which met here with its president Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the chair, failed to take a decision on whether its secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman and NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani should attend the National Security Council meetings. The matter was left open to more consultations.
Maulana Fazl told newsmen in a post-meeting briefing that “hopefully a decision will soon be made (regarding participation in the NSC meetings) by consensus of the supreme council members”.
When asked about his difference of opinion with MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, he said: “I am against the political role of the army as a whole but as far as launching a mass movement is concerned, there is no difference on the issue”.
While stressing the need for construction of new water reservoirs the six-party alliance said “construction of Kalabagh or any other dam should not be undertaken as long as there was no consensus among all the four provinces”.
It noted: “No step should be taken which could harm the integrity of the country.” For this purpose, the MMA proposed change of site for the reservoirs through national consensus.
The alliance agreed with the suggestion made by Maulana Fazl that an in-camera briefing should be provided on the water reservoirs issue to lawmakers.
He said there was no difference of opinion about launching a mass movement but it might be recalled that when the combined opposition was to meet on October 8 the natural catastrophe struck, disrupting that programme.
He said the combined opposition will hold its meeting at Parliament House on Tuesday to decide about its participation in the proposed parliamentary committee on earthquake.
The MMA fixed February 1-10 as dates for holding the alliance elections in Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP.
The alliance took a serious view of what it termed “harassment of ulema” and efforts at subduing the madressahs and announced that countrywide protests will be held on next Friday.
It condemned continuous confinement for the last four months students belonging to the Islami Jamiat Tulaba in Karachi even though the court had granted them bail.
It criticized the military operation against tribal people as well as the ongoing clean-up operation in Balochistan during which several people had been reported killed.
Asked whether US envoy’s recent statement about democracy in Pakistan was discussed, the Maulana said the American ambassador had forgotten even the diplomatic decorum and gone astray while offering such sweeping remarks.
He expressed astonishment over the US envoy’s claim that American forces in Pakistan will leave the country of their own will while President Musharraf “denies presence of any US troops on Pakistan’s soil”.
About the reported formation of a forward bloc in the NWFP Assembly, Maulana Fazl said it was “just a feeler” to lessen the impact of the forward bloc that existed in the ruling PML.
