By IANS
Islamabad : Pakistan’s six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) is on the verge of a split with its chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad likely to seek a separate symbol for his Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) to enable it to contest in the January elections.
“JI is likely to ask the Election Commission for a separate election symbol so it would be in a position to contest the polls in case MMA breaks up,” The News reported Monday, quoting a senior coalition leader.
He added that the JI had collected a list of available symbols from the Election Commission late on Sunday evening “as the unity of the religious parties seemed to be at stake”.
Tensions between two major components of MMA, the JI and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, have mounted over boycott of the general elections.
These have been exacerbated since October with the dissolution of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) assembly that the MMA ruled after JI members resigned but those from the JUI-F stayed put.
The resignations were meant to protest President Pervez Musharraf’s running for a second term in the Oct 6 presidential elections.
“Now the two groups are at loggerheads once again over the issue of boycott of general elections to be held on Jan 8,” The News said.
The “mild” Maulana Fazlur Rahman is eager to contest the elections, saying it doesn’t want to leave the field open for the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and its allies.
“The boycott would prove effective only when all the opposition parties agree to this,” Rahman has been quoted as saying.
Ahmad, however, “seems to have decided not to participate in the elections, which he believes would be engineered. The JI is to take the final decision Tuesday in the light of the recommendations of (the) central executive council of his party”, The News said.
“Maulana Fazlur Rahman was against quitting the National Assembly as well as NWFP Assembly. This time, he is not in favour of a boycott,” it quoted sources in the MMA as saying.
According to the sources, Ahmad “took many of his bold decisions in haste, which on occasions proved wrong”, without consulting Rahman. On his part, Rahman refused to honour the words and promises Ahmad had made as MMA chief.
“The JI also suspected the role of Rahman as a supporter of Musharraf, which resulted in creating differences,” the sources said.
Given these contradictions, it is not surprising that the JI should seek a separate symbol to keep the door open for itself at the polls should the boycott not materialise.