ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: The Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), two major components of the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), claimed on Saturday that Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman had not opposed the APDM’s decision to resign from assemblies but had only complained that he was not informed in advance about the date of submitting resignations.

Talking separately to Dawn here on Saturday, PML-N information secretary Ahsan Iqbal and a senior leader of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-Islam-F Hafiz Hussain Ahmed asserted that Maulana Fazlur Rehman was fully behind the APDM’s decision to resign from the assemblies on Sept 29.

Both Mr Iqbal and Mr Ahmed said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman was present in one of the meetings of the APDM in which it had been decided that APDM’s component parties would resign from the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies on the day the Election Commission of Pakistan would accept nomination papers of Gen Pervez Musharraf for presidential poll.

Mr Ahmed, who represented Maulana Fazlur Rehman in the APDM’s Friday meeting, claimed that the media had misinterpreted the statement of Maulana Fazl.

Explaining, Mr Ahmed said: “Actually the schedule of the presidential election was announced by the election commission at a time when Maulana Fazl was in Saudi Arabia and he was not aware of the election schedule. When the Maulana was contacted by some journalists in Makkah to seek his comment on the APDM’s decision, the Maulana said he was not aware of the date and, therefore, could not speak on it.”

When Mr Ahmed was asked whether he contacted Maulana Fazl to inform him of the presidential election schedule and the APDM’s decision of quitting the assemblies, Mr Ahmed said that he attempted to contact Maulana Fazl by telephone, but could not talk to him because of “some technical reasons.”

The JUI leader said that Maulana Fazl had already stated that he would abide by all decisions of the APDM. He further said that the JUI-F had convened its meeting on Monday to finalise its strategy on the issue.

PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said the APDM would stay intact and Sept 29 would be a defining moment in country’s political history as forces of democracy and dictatorship would be exposed on the day.

He said all those parties which had supported the military regime directly or indirectly would stay in the assemblies to help Gen Musharraf become president for another “unconstitutional term” and all those parties which supported the rule of law and genuine democracy would come out of the assemblies to protest against this flagrant violation of the constitution and democratic norms.

In reply to a question, he said the ARD had become defunct after the PPP meetings and parleys with Gen Musharraf.

“If PPP agrees to break its links with Gen Musharraf and resign with opposition parties then the ARD can be revived within the APDM. Now, the nation will judge the conduct of all political parties and leaders directly,” he added.