June 27, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 11, 1428

LAHORE, June 26: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal president Qazi Husain Ahmad has called a meeting of the MMA’s supreme council on July 1 at Mansoora, the Jamaat-i-Islami headquarters in Lahore.

According to a press release, the 24-member policy-making body of the six-party alliance of religious parties, including heads of component parties, will primarily focus on working out a joint strategy ahead of the multi-party conference to be held in London on July 7 and 8.

The MMA wants to make a meaningful contribution to the MPC, being sponsored by the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, which “is a rare occasion to unite all the opposition parties in a grand alliance to achieve the objective of the restoration of a genuine democracy in the country, according to the MMA.

The alliance will also consider MMA’s preparations for the next general elections and the new electoral rolls.

Meanwhile, the Jamaat-i-Islami has also convened on Wednesday (today) an ‘extraordinary’ session of its Majlis-i-Shoora to work out its agenda for the supreme council meeting.

The JI also plans to convene in Lahore on June 30 a meeting of the opposition parties’ coordination committee to apprise its leaders of the Shoora’s decisions and a possible course of action planned for the MMA supreme council moot.

The coordination committee includes, besides MMA parties, ANP president Asfandyar Wali, Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairperson Ikmran Khan and Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami National Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai.

NATO ATTACK: Addressing a session of the Jamaat’s central executive committee on Tuesday, Qazi Husain Ahmad said Islamabad had shown an apologetic attitude against the ‘naked aggression’ by Nato forces inside the Pakistani territory.

He said that the Nato forces themselves had accepted the responsibility of launching an attack inside the Pakistani territory.

This, he said, was not the first time that the alien forces had used the Pakistani soil for their nefarious designs, but foreign office and the government spokespersons kept a complete silence.

The JI chief also expressed shock over the death of about 300 people because of torrential rains and cyclone in Karachi and said that the plight of common citizens after the natural calamity had exposed the failure of Karachi’s administration.

He requested the Supreme Court to take suo moto notice of so many deaths which spoke high of the lack of preparedness of the city district government in the largest city of the country.

He condemned the attack on ambulances carrying injured and dead after rains and said this was a matter of grave concern.