October 07, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 24, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s rebellious MNA from Karachi, Qari Gul Rehman, did the last somersault on Saturday by openly voting for Gen Pervez Musharraf. But when asked to explain, the MNA offered one reason after another to reporters.

“I took part in the voting to register my protest against the policies and attitude of the MMA leadership,” Mr Rehman said when approached by a group of reporters outside the Parliament House.

He said there were serious differences between the Jamaat-i- Islami (JI) Chief and MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman on a number of issues.

The MMA dissident said he was also opposed to the idea of the formation of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM). He said he had already announced that he was not bound to follow the APDM’s directives.

Mr Rehman, who had not submitted resignation from the assembly with his other colleagues on October 2, said the MMA was on the verge of collapse due to the wrong policies of its leadership.

Qari Gul Rehman, who belongs to JUI (Senior), gave a very interesting reply when a reporter asked him as to why he had cast his vote to a person, who had been accused of murdering students of Jamia Hafsa during the Lal Masjid operation. He first refused to disclose that he had voted for Gen Musharraf, but later said that he had done this only to get close to Gen Musharraf so that he could ask the president as to who had ordered the Lal Masjid operation.

However, taking hint from the reporter’s question, Mr Rehman very intelligently changed his position and later giving interviews to some private channels, he said he had decided not to resign from the assembly so that he could keep the issue alive on the floor of the house.

“Why the MMA members did not resign when the Lal Masjid operation was carried out? Why the MMA leaders did not quit the assemblies when the government passed Women Protection Bill?” he said in a typical cleric’s style.

Later, in another interesting development, Qari Gul Rehman in a statement faxed to Dawn, announced that he had removed Pir Abdul Rahim Naqshbandi as the president of JUI (Senior), who had earlier cancelled the membership of Mr Rehman for violating the party discipline.

Qari Gul Rehman came to the spotlight when a PML-N minority MNA Krishan Bheel slapped him across the face during the National Assembly session last year for allegedly passing some remarks against the minorities. The issue was resolved only when the senior PML-N leadership apologised to him on behalf of Mr Bheel.