LAHORE/ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: The heads of parties in the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) are scheduled to meet in Lahore on Wednesday to discus a host of ‘thorny issues’, including resignations of their legislators from the National Assembly, provincial assemblies and the Senate.

Though the declared positions of two of its major components are poles apart on certain issues, most of the alliance’s leaders, are optimistic that the meeting would succeed in ending all controversies. The Jamaat says it will boycott the National Assembly session, which begins on Tuesday, while the JUI-F has decided to attend it.

MMA’s deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch said on Monday that the meeting had been convened because the alliance’s leaders felt that certain issues were very serious and differences in the alliance were increasing.

He said: “I am sure main controversies will be resolved (in the MMA meeting) because parties forming the alliance want to keep it intact.”

It is believed that after a series of meetings, Qazi Hussain Ahmed might not insist on the resignation issue to save the alliance from splitting. But he is likely to insist on support for the JI’s decision to boycott the lower house session.

The alliance would also try to convince Qazi Hussain not to step down from the post of MMA chief for another term, and if he agreed, other office-bearers would also be retained, a source claimed.

The JUI said it would attend the NA session to condole the death of its MNA from Bannu, Maulana Naseeb Ali Shah.

“Our participation is necessary because the National Assembly will adopt a resolution to condole the death of the JUI MNA. We cannot abstain from the session,” party’s Punjab Amir Maulana Mohammad Amjad told Dawn. He said that the JI had decided to boycott the NA session without consulting other parties. He said Maulana Fazlur Rehman would attend the meeting.

The JUI-F decided in its executive council’s meeting in Lahore to persuade all opposition parties to collectively resign from the assemblies if the government tried to re-elect President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Terming the utility of resigning from assemblies temporary, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, JUI’s secretary-general, said that its effectiveness was questionable and as such the issue had become ‘outdated’ and “need not to be discussed by the council”.

The Maulana said the meeting would review the emerging political situation in the country and decide whether to attend the proposed multi-party conference in London.

Maulana Haideri said that the JUI’s executive had decided that it would participate in the MPC whether it was convened by the PML-N or any other party.

He said that the party had decided to take part in the next general elections from the allaince’s platform.

He said JUI-F had also decided that efforts would be made to take along all opposition parties to press the government to hold free and fair elections and to take a unified position if the government tried to re-elect President Musharraf.