July 03, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1428

LAHORE, July 2: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s Supreme Council, which met here on Sunday, once again chosen not to rise above the political expediency by keeping major political issues undecided.

However, the six-party religious alliance saved its face by resolving that it would go for radical steps like boycott of the next general elections, en bloc resignations from assemblies and dissociating the alliance from the coalition government in Balochistan, only if all other political parties resolved in the multi-party conference in London to tread the same path.

Sources privy to the `crucial’ MMA meeting told Dawn that it invariably turned out to be a debate between president Qazi Husain Ahmad and secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman who tried to woo each other without showing flexibility, both of them believing their respective stances were in the best interest of the MMA and that of the country. Other MMA components almost remained silent spectators, the sources said.

Qazi pleaded for taking steps like staying away from the general elections and coming out of the legislatures, impressing upon Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam that it should part ways with the ruling coalition in Balochistan and even quit the government in the NWFP. He was of the view that such measures would help prevent Gen Pervez Musharraf from seeking re-election to presidency through the existing assemblies.

The sources said Qazi time and again pleaded for a decision but the Maulana put his foot down giving his own reasons for retaining a status quo. He repeatedly referred to the Pakistan People’s Party ‘moves’ and argued a boycott would mean leaving the electoral field open for the regime, the PPP and other secular parties, which, he said, would not be a wise decision. At one stage the Maulana asked Qazi why his party alone should make sacrifices in the NWFP and Balochistan while other parties gaining political mileage, they said.

The Maulana argued that the MMA should wait for the input from other parties attending the London MPC, particularly the PPP and the PML-N, and must not expose its cards before time.

However, Qazi pleaded that the indecision would not help the MMA achieve its objective of carving out a greater opposition alliance for launching a `decisive’ movement against Gen Musharraf. The Maulana was of the view that such an alliance was not possible in the circumstances when the PPP was looking elsewhere and other secular parties also had their reservations about the MMA, the sources said.

They said some other MMA components voiced the apprehension that the situation was fraught with the possibility of new alliances coming into being in place of the ARD and even the MMA because some of the MMA parties were also interested in another alliance and had already been in agreement with at least two non-MMA players for political cooperation.

Later, a majority of smaller parties in the meeting seemed to be subscribing to Maulana’s views, the sources said. Consequently, “it was unanimously decided” that a decision to critical issues should be linked with the views of other MPC participants, they added.

The MMA had neither made any arrangements for a media briefing about the meeting’s outcome, nor any press release was issued.