July 27, 2007	Friday	Rajab 11, 1428

LAHORE, July 26: A meeting of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s supreme council has been convened in Islamabad on July 30 to ‘discuss certain important issues pertaining to the country’s political situation’.

The MMA has not given details about the important issues. It is, however, understood that the resignation tendered by the president of the six-party religious alliance, Qazi Husain Ahmad, from the National Assembly is one of the questions which will invite heated debate and even cast bitterness in the alliance’s ranks.

The MMA president submitted his resignation to the National Assembly speaker on Wednesday on the plea that the blood of Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid students was shed in a military-led operation.

However, MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman did not approve of the resignation and cast aspersions on the MMA chief saying he had breached the alliance’s discipline for which he would be answerable to the supreme council in its next meeting.

The MMA has been opposing the Qazi in quitting the National Assembly as an individual, pleading that a single resignation would make no dent in the government’s political scheme of things. The MMA also says that such a decision should be taken collectively.

The All-Party Democratic Movement also decided in London that all options, including en bloc resignations from the national and provincial legislatures, would be used to mount pressure on the government.

Insiders understand that the resignation by Qazi Husain Ahmad was not only a violation of the MMA’s earlier decisions about quitting assemblies but also a breach of the APDM’s mandate.

The MMA chief indicated his intention of resigning from the NA a few months ago and also offered to step down as head of the alliance. The supreme council, in a meeting, had resolved at that time that Qazi would neither resign from the NA nor would leave the president’s office. It was also decided at that meeting that resignation would be a collective affair and no individual would take an independent decision.

QAZI: Meanwhile, talking to reporters at Mansoora on Thursday, the MMA president hoped that the alliance would remain intact and maintain its unity ‘despite all odds’. In reply to a question, he said that he would explain his position about the resignation at the supreme council meeting. “I am confident that all my colleagues will accept my position in the greater interest of the MMA and the country”, was the only answer the MMA chief gave when asked about his resignation and the reaction shown by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

He said that the MMA would not become party to the “American game” of giving Gen Pervez Musharraf political concession or time for the avowed objective of restoring democracy. He said that he did not know if certain other political parties were thinking in terms of allowing Gen Musharraf to take more time in bringing the country back on the political track. “We have had enough of the concession game and we are not prepared to give him (the President) more time even for the cause of democracy’, he added.