Poll boycott to help Musharraf, Fazl tells MMA council
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD Nov 28: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal failed to agree on a decision to boy-cott elections with Maulana Fazlur Rahman saying that a boycott would be counter-productive.
The alliance’s supreme council met here on Wednesday and the heads of the six-party alliance also held a separate meeting. The alliance’s parliamentary board also met and discussed the names of provincial candidates.
Sources said there was a disagreement among the leaders on the distribution of seats.
The MMA leaders agreed to attend the APDM’s meeting in Raiwind on Thursday to take a final decision on the election issue.
The supreme council met at Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s residence and the meeting lasted five hours.
The alliance’s deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch told this correspondent that the parliamentary board had finalised the names of provincial candidates but the names of candidates for the National Assembly were not finalised.
He said: “We have till December 6 to finalise the names of our candidates”.
The sources quoted Maulana Fazl as saying: “Where will the opposition stand if the PPP stick to its decision of taking part in the polls?”
He said that the boycott would be more effective if all opposition parties took a unanimous decision.
Otherwise, it would be tantamount to giving a free hand to the PML and its allies and the PPP to win the polls.
Maulana Fazl is reported to have said that if the opposition boycotted the polls without PPP’s support, it would give Gen (retd) Musharraf an opportunity to firm his grip on power as civilian president.
Mr Baloch said that the issue of the revival of pre-Nov 3 judiciary was also discussed and the alliance’s leadership decided to continue the struggle for the independence and restoration of judiciary to its original strength and position.
