LAHORE, March 7: The Punjab council of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on Wednesday expressed its displeasure over the decision of Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto not to attend a multi-party conference in London on March 24.

The council said her absence from a “highly important” meeting of the opposition parties gave an impression that she was directly and indirectly strengthening the hands of Gen Pervez Mushrraf and military rule in the country.

“The forum (London moot) is a rare opportunity to unite anti-Musharraf parties into a combined opposition and wage a struggle against the dictatorial rule with a new vigour but the PPP and its chairperson have their own agenda,” MMA provincial president Liaquat Baloch said at a news conference after the council’s meeting. He said that he hoped Bhutto would review her decision in national interest.

The MMA provincial council also asked the supreme council, which is scheduled to meet in Islamabad on March 17, to turn the London conference into a combined opposition.

Baloch said that the MMA should also try to convince the London moot to approve a strategy for fair, transparent and free elections under a non-partisan and powerful election commission. The moot should also plan a line of action for the future struggle and devise a policy to resist the re-election of Gen Musharraf from the present electoral college for another term in the presidency while retaining his uniform, he said.

The council decided that the MMA would contest the general election with the symbol of book which was allotted to the alliance for the 2002 elections. It also constituted a provincial parliamentary board and directed its district organisations to send names of prospective candidates for the National and Provincial Assemblies by March 31. District bodies’ recommendations will be considered by the provincial parliamentary board and send its recommendations to the central board for a final decision.

Baloch said: “The MMA is prepared for both elections and struggle at the same time and it will not give any opportunity to the rulers to delay polls.”

He criticised the government for “giving flimsy excuses” to defer elections and said such a step would be unconstitutional.

The MMA also announced a programme of public meetings and conferences to be held in March and April. The campaign will begin with a public meeting in Faisalabad on April 6 and end with a workers’ convention at Minar-i-Pakistan, Lahore, on April 22. An Ulema and Mashaikh Conference will be held on April 7.

The MMA will also hold a demonstration outside the Lahore Press Club on April 11 for the release of Allama Shabbir Hashmi, the Kasur president of the MMA, who was arrested two months ago.