LAHORE, Sept 22: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s secretary-general and JUI-F president Maulana Fazlur Rahman has written a letter to Punjab MMA chief and JI leader Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, asking him not to violate alliance discipline by supporting rival candidates.

“Being a responsible leader of the MMA, you should extend support to the candidates contesting elections with book as symbol,” says the letter..

A JUI-F delegation, which had left for Dera Ismail Khan on Saturday to inform their president about the situation developing in NA-118, had brought the letter to be handed over to Mr Idrees on Monday (today)

The JI has fielded Hafiz Salman Butt against PML-QA president Mian Azhar in the constituency from the PML-N platform while the MMA issued its ticket to JUI-F’s Hafiz Abdul Wadood. Mr Butt has been campaigning since then, saying he will suspend it only if the JI leadership directs him to do so.

Meanwhile, the MMA has asked the government to allow processions for electioneering and urged the chief election commissioner to take note of pre-poll rigging.

Talking to reporters at his residence, MMA information secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi asked the election commission to check governmental interference in the election process aimed at ensuring success of the pro-government candidates.

He also asked the EC to ban District Nazimeen from attending election meetings of PML-QA nominees and using public resources to execute development projects for the political benefit of pro-government aspirants.

He told a questioner that they had submitted solid suggestions to world monitoring teams to curb rigging and the government could prove its impartiality by implementing these proposals.

Answering a question, he said the six religious parties alliance would initiate the third phase of its mass contact drive by holding election meetings in different cities and towns of the Punjab from tomorrow (Monday).

He said the people propagating that the polls could be postponed were afraid of the street power of the MMA.