October 22, 2007	Monday	Shawwal 9, 1428

PESHAWAR, Oct 21: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that his party will decide soon on whether to leave the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM).

“Despite differences we will try our best to keep the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) intact, but the JUI will take a final decision either to quit the APDM or to remain in it,” Maulana Fazl said while addressing the provincial general council of his party here on Sunday.

He said that the central executive council of the JUI would meet in Islamabad on Oct 24 to decide about party’s future with the APDM.

The JUI chief came down heavily on other parties in the APDM, including the Awami National Party and the Jamaat-i-Islami for ‘betraying his party’.

“They are not trustworthy, because they left us alone in a very critical situation,” he observed, adding that JI leaders misguided media on the issue of resignations from the assemblies, particularly the dissolution of the NWFP Assembly.

He said his partners in the MMA and other opposition parties had been repeating their calls for resigning from the assemblies for the past two years on the issue of women’s protection bill and the military operation in Balochistan.

Maulana Fazl said that ANP’s parliamentary leader in the NWFP Assembly had assured him that his lawmakers would not resign, but he failed to keep his word.

“It does not carry any logic to resign from the assemblies and leave the field open for the government,” he remarked, adding that the opposition parties had admitted their weakness by resigning.

He criticised Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan for filing petitions in the Supreme Court against President Pervez Musharraf’s dual offices. He said that petitions had provided an opportunity to Gen Musharraf to get his position legitimised from the court.

He asked would the opposition boycott the elections if the court gave a verdict in favour of Gen Musharraf.

He asked Qazi Hussain to stop mud slinging and not blame the JUI for not dissolving the provincial assembly.

He said the Jamaat-i-Islami leader had filed the petition against Gen Musharraf and backed the candidature of Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmad without consulting the MMA.

US AMBASSADOR: Maulana Fazl told the council members that US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson had hinted at withdrawing forces from Afghanistan.

“During our meeting, the ambassador told me that her government was thinking about pulling out troops from Afghanistan,” he said.

The US ambassador called on Maulana Fazl on Sept 28.

He said he had told the ambassador that peace would not be restored in Afghanistan and the tribal area unless United States forces left the country. He said he had also informed the ambassador that development programmes would not change the situation in the tribal area without the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.