LAHORE, Sept 4: The PPP leadership is not serious about electoral cooperation with the PML-N and is reportedly using delaying tactics in this regard.
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal central leader Liaquat Baloch told Dawn here on Wednesday quoting PML-N leaders Akram Zaki and Khwaja Saad Rafiq. He said they told him during a meeting a couple of days ago that the PPP leaders were delaying the decision on electoral adjustments on one pretext or the other.
Mr Baloch, who is also Jamaat-i-Islami naib amir, said he told both the PML-N leaders that they had already been warned of the situation. He also told them that the PPP was deliberately creating a confusion among the people to benefit from the division of the votebank of the other parties.
To achieve the motive, he said, the PPP was trying to desist the PML-N from cooperating with the MMA.
The MMA leader did not see any harm in making adjustments with political parties having different points of view on issues.
He said the victory of an MMA nominee from a constituency would be after all seen as the victory of an ideology.
“However, no person against our ideology should reach the assembly with the help of our votebank,” he said.
Not the MMA but the other parties were interested in making adjustments with it for they felt that the combined strength of the six religious schools of thought had become a force to reckon with, he said, adding the alliance enjoyed the support of at least 8,000 to 12,000 voters in each constituency.
These parties were propagating that the MMA was going with them and spreading “baseless” news, he said, admitting that some MMA officials were also informing the press “prematurely” about certain moves without taking into account its consequences.
About reports of MMA leaders meetings with government officials, he said only the Punjab chief secretary had contacted them to clarify his position when the MMA delegation complained to the chief election commissioner that the provincial administration had become a party and was siding with certain politicians.
About a rift in the MMA, he said Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith president Prof Sajid Mir had complained of harsh attitude of alliance chief and JUP president Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani during a summit meeting.
Later, Maulana Noorani had apologized over it but by that time Mr Mir had left the venue, he added.
Defending Maulana Noorani, Mr Baloch said things like that happened while discussing important issues like distribution of seats.
The MJAH was also grieved over two provincial assembly seats in Karachi, he said. The JUP had a claim over one seat (of Shah Faisal Colony area) while the JI had a strong candidate for the other seat (of Clifton area) and both the parties had been winning them.
Mr Baloch said the MJAH had only two winning candidates — Haji Abdur Razzaq and Rana Shafiq —- for the National Assembly and they both wanted to contest the polls from the PML-N platform.
The MJAH was accommodated in Turbat district in Balochistan, and Faisalabad and Toba Tek Singh in the Punjab but its nominees did not even file their nominations, he said.
About disputes over various seats among the MMA constituents, he said lists of candidates had been unanimously prepared by the district organizations of the MMA and sent to the central high command through provincial bodies so there was no question of any unfair deal at the central level.
About JUI-S chief Maulana Samiul Haq’s grievance, he said the MMA had decided that the six central leaders of the alliance would be authorized to decide about the candidates for the provincial assembly seats falling under the NA constituencies they were contesting from.
As Mr Haq had fielded his son in his place so there was no violation of the decision if a JUI-F candidate filed his nomination papers from a provincial assembly seat under that NA constituency.