March 27, 2006	Monday	Safar 26, 1427

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PESHAWAR, March 26: Three of the four MPAs expelled from the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam have rejected horse-trading charges and vowed to challenge a notification regarding their purported resignations from the NWFP assembly. Speaking at a joint news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Sunday, Maulana Dildar Ahmed, Gursaran Lal and Ms Rukhsana Raz questioned the credibility of the committee which conducted an inquiry against them. They asked Chief Minister Akram Durrani and JUI leadership to explain why did they allot Senate tickets to millionaires like Dr Shaheena Jamil, Talha Mahmood and Azam Khan Swati, who were not even card-full-fledged members of the party.

Reading out a joint statement, Maulana Dildar Ahmed from PF-61, Kohistan, denied that he

or any of his colleagues had submitted resignation to the Speaker’s secretariat.

“It is a fraud, because we neither put signatures nor seals on the purported resignations submitted to the speaker. Now it is the duty of the speaker to ascertain the veracity of the resignation,” he added.

He claimed that the provincial government was trying to cover up its own ‘sins’ and holding them responsible for its own failure. He said everybody was aware of the game played by the NWFP government and two members of the inquiry committee. He said he had been an office-bearer of the Jamiat Tulba-i-Islam and the JUI’s Kohistan chapter. He said he and his colleagues would continue their struggle against what he called the high-handedness of their party leadership.

Maulana Dildar said that after their expulsion, provincial chief of the JUI and head of the inquiry committee MNA Maulana Amanaullah tried to comfort him by saying that it was an unjust decision taken by his subordinates Maulana Shujaul Mulk and Qari Fiyyazur Rehman Alvi. He appealed to the party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to look into the matter and help poor and honest members of the JUI.

Maulana Dildar said the NWFP government had made two women and one minority MPA the scapegoat to protect rich leaders. He said that while the MMA claimed that it had empowered women and minorities in the light of Islamic Shariat it expelled two women and one Hindu MPA.

He said the chief minister and other JUI leaders had first claimed that all 39 MPAs had voted for the JUI nominees, but later the chief minister issued a contradictory statement, saying 23 MPAs had violated the party discipline. He said he would like to know where had all the 23 votes gone.