PESHAWAR, Oct 8: The Jamaat-i-Islami on Monday accused NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani of helping the pro-Musharraf opposition in moving a no-confidence resolution against him in order to thwart the dissolution of the provincial assembly.

“It has become clear that the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) was party to the conspiracy to pre-empt the dissolution of the NWFP Assembly to save the credibility of Gen Musharraf’s election from one of the federating units,” Jamaat-i-Islami NWFP general-secretary Shabbir Ahmad Khan said at a press conference here on Monday.

The former MNA alleged that three of the signatories to the no-confidence motion were members of the NWFP Assembly who had done so on the chief minister’s prodding. He did not name the MPAs.

In what appears to be a charge-sheet against the JUI(F), Shabbir Ahmad Khan accused the JUI(F) of betraying the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and the Jamaat-i-Islami every step of the way — from refusing to resign in protest against the killing of Baloch leader Nawab Mohammad Akbar Khan Bugti to the passage of the Women’s Protection Bill.

He further claimed that the JI had to swallow the bitter pill of accepting the 17th Amendment because of the JUI in order to keep the MMA intact.

He recalled that the MMA had decided that Fazlur Rehman and Mr Durrani would not attend the National Security Council meeting but the JUI(F) was so anxious that the chief minister attended the meeting without any approval from the religious alliance.

Similarly, he said, the JUI(F) entered into a coalition government with the PML(Q) without consulting the MMA which helped strengthen the Musharraf regime.

The former MNA from Peshawar said the decision to dissolve the NWFP Assembly had been taken at the APDM’s meeting in London which was also attended by Maulana Fazlur Rehman. The APDM meeting in Islamabad, he added, was held to implement the London decisions.

He charged that it was on the pretext of not having been taken into confidence that Maulana Fazlur Rehman pressurised the APDM to accept the October 2 deadline.

He said the chief minister should have advised the dissolution of the NWFP Assembly, knowing that the opposition had announced to move a no-confidence motion against him. “But he waited till the time the opposition moved the no-trust motion against him.

“This shows that the conspiracy to pre-empt the dissolution of the NWFP Assembly had been hatched in the Punjab House,” he said, adding that Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s meeting with the US ambassador in Islamabad also appeared to be part of those efforts.

He said the Punjab House meeting was attended by Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chief Minister Durrani besides sleuths of an intelligence agency.