PESHAWAR, Oct 5: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Friday his Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam would review its affiliation with the All Parties Democratic Movement after the resignation by about 30 APDM lawmakers from the NWFP assembly which, in his opinion, was a violation of the alliance’s decision.

Addressing a press conference at the Frontier House, he said the APDM had in its last meeting decided that members of the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan assemblies and the National Assembly would resign, and Chief Minister Akram Durrani would advise the governor to dissolve the NWFP assembly.

But, he said, the opposition parties had restrained the chief minister from doing so with a no-confidence motion.

The Maulana said the chief minister had taken a lawful course and asked the opposition to prove that he (chief minister) had lost the confidence of the house.

The house is to vote on the issue on Monday, but members of the Jamaat-i-Islami and Pakistan Muslim League(N) resigned from the assembly on Friday.

The JUI(F) chief said partners should not take such harmful steps. He said: “We have suspended our affiliation with the APDM. Now JUI(F) central executive committee will decide if it should stay in the APDM. We will also take up the issue with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal supreme council which takes policy decisions. “We have not violated any decision.” He said JI’s unilateral move had damaged the MMA.

Maulana Fazl also lashed out at the NWFP Assembly Speaker Bakht Jehan who, according to him, facilitated the 31 opposition MPAs to table the no-confidence resolution in the house on Wednesday. He said over 80 lawmakers of the MMA and its allies were ready to defeat the motion, but the speaker didn’t pay heed to their request.

He said: “We will never back out of our words; we will dissolve the NWFP assembly as per the APDM decision”.

He said the his party would support the general strike called by the APDM, observe black day and its workers would take part in protest meetings and rallies being organised across the country on Saturday to denounce the presidential election.

But, he said, his party would not take part in any future programme of the APDM.

About the National Reconciliation Ordinance, he said it should not be called national reconciliation because it was an agreement between two persons, Gen Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto.