PESHAWAR, March 1: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has requested its estranged leader Maulana Samiul Haq and his followers to lead the six-party alliance in the Frontier and "work for the unity of Ummah".

A three-member MMA delegation comprising Liaquat Baloch of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazal), and Pir Ejaz Hashmi of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan held a meeting at the residence of NWFP senior minister Sirajul Haq.

Other members of the MMA components who attended the meeting were Abdus Salam Salfi and Fazl Rehman Madni of the Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadith, Owais Qadri and Akhtar Nawaz Khan of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Abdul Jalil Jan, Maulavi Kifayatullah and Sheikh Amanullah of the JUI, Allama Ramzan Tauqeer of the Tehreek-i-Islami Pakistan, Shabbir Ahmed Khan, Sirajul Haq, Hakim Abdul Waheed and Prof M. Ibrahim of the JI.

The meeting reviewed the two-year performance of the alliance and decided to launch an MMA membership campaign and elect its new office-bearers. It constituted an eight-member jirga which would hold talks with Maulana Samiul Haq and try to persuade him to end his hostile attitude towards the MMA.

It directed the MMA leadership of Frontier to convene a jirga and visit Qazi Abdul Latif, also an angry leader of the alliance, and persuade him to lead the MMA in the NWFP.

The meeting asked the jirga members to submit their report within 10 days. It advised them to visit Maulana Samiul Haq in shortest possible time and persuade him to participate in the next MMA elections. The meeting also discussed adjustments with other political parties for the local bodies' elections.