December 06, 2006	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: A two-day meeting of the six-party Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) parliamentary group starts here on Wednesday to discuss and decide on the modus operandi of resigning from the National Assembly in protest against the passage of the women’s rights law.

The meeting, to be presided over by alliance president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, is caught between the two groups — one demands immediate resignations while the other wants a further wait for the ARD parties to join in.

While JUI-F chief and MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that launching of the movement could proceed without resignation from the assembly, alliance president Qazi Hussain Ahmed reiterated that the next NA session would be the last one for the MMA MNAs.

The meeting will also discuss the ongoing cooperation with the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the possibilities of forming a grand alliance without the PPP. The role of PML-N, which supports the MMA’s decision of resigning from the assembly, will also come under discussion, sources said.

MMA deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch, who is also Jamaat-i-Islami’s Punjab amir, said: “There are no two opinions in the alliance about collective tendering of resignations and it is a unanimous decision of all parties.”

Talking to Dawn, he said the MMA leadership in the meeting will decide the mechanism of resigning from the assembly, adding that majority opinion in the alliance was that the launch of forceful movement should coincide with the announcement of collective resignations.

He said the MMA was convinced that the pro-West so called liberals had joined hands with the dictatorship and the alliance had to take its decisions in light of this unholy connivance.