PESHAWAR, Dec 8: President of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Qazi Hussain Ahmad has restricted Jamaat-i-Islami MNAs from attending the National Assembly and drawing perks and privileges.

“We have directed JI MNAs not to attend NA proceedings or appear in the meetings of house committees till the MMA supreme council comes up with a decision on resigning from the lower house,” Qazi Hussain Ahmed told journalists in the Mohabbat Khan Mosque here on Friday.

JI MNAs had also been asked not to accept any perks and privileges they were entitled to, he said.

Despite serious differences within the six-party alliance over resigning from the National Assembly, the JI chief was optimistic that the issue would be resolved amicably.

Certainly, he said, there were differences within the alliance over the resignation issue, but the JI would try its best to keep the alliance intact.

“Initially, all six component parties of the MMA, including the JUI-F, had agreed in principal to resign from the NA in case the women right’s bill was passed. But suddenly some of our friends backed out of their decision,” he said.

He said the JI would not harm the MMA at any cost and strengthen it further, even though some forces were hatching conspiracy to break the alliance.

“We have given another chance to our friends to make a final decision on the resignation issue,” he said, adding that the alliance’s supreme council would deliberate over the issue after Eid-ul-Azha.

He criticised the statement, attributed to President General Pervez Musharraf, that illiterates were governing the Frontier province.

He said despite the arrest of 350 JI workers in Punjab, the movement to remove what he called the unconstitutional government would continue.