September 02, 2007	Sunday	Sha'aban 19, 1428

UPPER DIR, Sept 1: The Upper Dir chapter of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) has announced that it will not form an electoral alliance with the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) for the upcoming general elections due to its “unbecoming attitude” towards their party.

This decision was taken at a meeting of the party, which reviewed preparations for the elections. JUI-F district chapter amir Maulana Fazl Azeem and general secretary Maulana Gul Badshah and other office bearers attended the meeting.

The meeting condemned the JI’s “unbecoming attitude” towards its ally in the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA). “The JI not only pushed the JUI-F towards the corner throughout the tenure of the MMA government, but also treated it like a political opponent,” the party sources said.

The JI, said the sources, had ignored the JUI-F in all affairs and had never given importance to it, adding that the local chapter of the JUI-F had decided that it would not form an electoral alliance with the JI at the Upper Dir level.

The two constituent parties of the MMA had never been comfortable with each other since the berth of their government at the provincial level. In 2004, the parties developed serious differences over the construction of a canal.

“We will contest elections in our own capacity and would field our own candidates for all constituencies,” Fazl Azeem said, adding the party would not even form any alliance with other parties.

The party has said several times in the recent past that it had parted ways with the JI in Dir Upper and that the MMA no longer existed in the district.