ISLAMABAD – Refusing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman’s request for the immediate revival of the defunct Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) told Fazl on Saturday that the matter would be decided once elections were announced.
“JI chief Munawwar Hassan told Fazl that MMA is basically an electoral alliance of religious parties and the decision regarding its revival will be taken once new elections are announced, either mid-term or full-term,” said a JI leader, who asked not to be named.
The JI source said that the JI chief assured Fazl that his party would continue to maintain close cooperation on national issues but it needed no new alliance of opposition parties or the revival of the defunct MMA. “Fazl suggested in his meeting with JI leaders that the mainstream religious parties could play an active and effective role in the country’s politics if they united again on the platform of the MMA.
He also said that since JUI-F had parted ways with the ruling coalition, JI should have no objections on reactivating the religious parties’ alliance,” said the source. JI leaders said however that religious parties, both mainstream and smaller ones, were already united on the platform of Tehreek-e-Namoos-e-Risalat (TNR) for which a steering committee had also been formed, the source said.
JI chief Munawwar Hassan told Pakistan Today that his party felt no need to form an electoral alliance. “Electoral alliance will be formed after elections are announced and we have to see who is holding the elections, President [Asif Ali] Zardari or the army. We also have to wait for the status of the next polls, to see whether they are held mid-term or after the government completes its tenure,” he added.
JI vice-chief Liaqat Baloch said that Fazl’s visit to Mansoora on Saturday was not to seek JI’s support for the revival of MMA. JUI-F spokesman Amjad Khan said, however, that Fazl had talked about the revival of the MMA in his meeting with the JI chief, and he was “striving for the restoration of MMA”.
