ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: The ARD members taking part in the debate on the 17th Amendment Bill in the National Assembly on Sunday, lashed out at the MMA for “compromising” on the LFO and declared that the religious alliance was no more part of the combined opposition.

The treasury members kept on enjoying the speeches of the opposition members when leaders of both the alliances, which remained together for over one year, turned their guns against each other, instead of the government.

Almost all the ARD members, who participated in the debate during the second reading of the bill, criticized the MMA for making a deal with the government.

Responding to some of the points raised by the ARD members, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed reminded them that how both the PPP and the PML-N had made “compromises” in the past.

It all started when Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said the MMA members were today supporting Article 58(2)(b) and tomorrow it would be used for dismissing their own government in the NWFP. He said the ARD was the real opposition.

ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim said Maulana Fazl was helping the government in “disfiguring and mutilating” the constitution, approved unanimously by politicians and scholars, including the MMA leader’s father Maulana Mufti Mehmood.

“For God sake, do not break the pledge made with people,” Mr Fahim appealed to the MMA leaders asking them to continue their struggle for the supremacy of parliament and the constitution.

PML-N leader Tehmina Daultana alleged that the MMA had compromised to save its governments in Balochistan and the NWFP.

Another PPP member Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the MMA was “getting double benefits on one ticket” as its leaders wanted to remain both in the government and the opposition at the same time.

Maulana Fazl said those people were asking the MMA to follow the principles who kept on negotiating with the military rulers to acquire power. He said Makhdoom Amin Fahim was about to become the prime minister soon after the elections, but the deal could not be materialized.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said the PPP had boycotted the 1985 elections and did not recognize that assembly and the Eighth Amendment. Later in 1988, he added, the same PPP members, including its prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, took the oath under the constitution which contained the same Eighth Amendment.

He asked if Ms Bhutto was against Article 58(2)(b), then why she had criticized the judgment of Justice Nasim Hassan Shah who had rejected the use of Article 58(2)(b) and restored the government of Nawaz Sharif.