JI, JUI rift may trigger MMA split

LAHORE—Senator Prof Sajid Mir has expressed his concern over prevailing gulf between Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed. In a statement issued on Sunday, Senator Prof Sajid Mir demanded of both the leaders to shun their differences, otherwise religious coalition will suffer in upcoming General Elections.
He said differences on resignations issue was always there in the party but the party had failed to get its objectives on presidential election. “ Role of lawyers against Musharraf on political and judicial front is laudable and they are successful in their struggle but PPP and MMA have failed to wage struggle against Musharraf,” he maintained.
Commenting on PPP role in Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), he said now Benazir Bhutto has compromised with Musharraf irrespective of his agreement in Charter of Democracy. It is a black day of the history when PPP has signed an agreement on the name of National Reconciliation Ordinance in which protection will be given to corrupt politicians, he held.
Differences between the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) components Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) deepened further on Saturday when nine JUI-F MPAs submitted a vote of no-confidence against the NWFP Assembly Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan who belongs to the JI.
Led by the provincial minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai, the JUI-F members deposited the resolution in the assembly secretariat. They also presented a notice, saying the speaker had lost the confidence of the majority in the NWFP Assembly. It demanded that the no-trust vote should be carried out in the ongoing session of the provincial assembly.
JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani had bitterly criticized Speaker Bakht Jehan on Friday for not suspending the assembly rules in time for voting on the no-trust motion by the pro-Musharraf MPAs despite repeated requests by MMA leaders. They said his delaying tactics had harmed the MMA cause and foiled plans to dissolve the NWFP Assembly prior to the presidential election on October 6. It was hinted that a no-confidence move would be initiated against the speaker.
The JUI-F leadership was also incensed by the JI move to ask its 24 MPAs to resign from the provincial assembly on Friday, along with other members from the APDM component parties, without waiting for the JUI-F lawmakers to make up their mind. Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said he would raise the issue in the MMA Supreme Council meeting.
The political developments during the past few days have widened the gulf between the JUI-F and the JI, the two largest components of the MMA, and raised question marks about the future of the six-party religio-political alliance. Speaker Bakht Jehan is now the lone JI MPA in the assembly and he has to face the no-trust by his former allies from the JUI-F.—Agencies