Ahmad denies crisis in alliance

Islamabad: A leader of one of the constituents of the six-party religious alliance has denied a crisis in the grouping over his party's decision to withdraw lawmakers from the assemblies before yesterday's presidential election.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the head of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party, which is a constituent of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance, said no purpose would have been served if his party's legislators waited for the re-election of General Pervez Musharraf to be over. The JI members had resigned ignoring the decision of other parties of the alliance to stay on.

Rejecting the outcome of the election, Ahmad told journalists an electoral college could elect a president only once and not twice as done by the present assemblies. "This is an illegal move by the Musharraf regime and in protest against this move we resigned," he added.

"This presidential election lacks credibility and it was a one-sided show of power by the ruling party that used each and every means to make the show a success but it failed."

He rejected "rumours" that the religious alliance faces a split. "MMA will remain intact. Difference of opinion can't be labelled as a split because all the component parties have their own opinions on different issues but after consultation we adopt a united stand," the Jamaat-e-Islami chief said.

The veteran politician dismissed allegations by the MMA chief and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) president Fazlur Rehman saying it was against the dignity of religious leaders to level such allegations. "A religious leader should be a role model for the people and he should be ethically strong enough, so that no one can criticise him. But in this case the situation is different," he said.

Disastrous

Ahmad said that mud-slinging between the religious leaders will be disastrous for the popularity of religious parties. So differences of opinion should not be aired in a way that is harmful to the reputation of the religious parties.

He said he was deeply saddened by the accusations made by leader Rehman but he still believed in mutual respect and would not indulge in a tit-for-tat reaction.

Rehman, along with the Chief Minister of NWFP Akram Khan Durrani, in a press conference, held the JI chief responsible for the current situation in the provincial assembly and said that quitting the provincial assembly was Ahmad's personal decision which was never discussed with them. They also accused the speaker of the provincial assembly, who belonged to the JI, of not cooperating with the government.