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| India-Pakistan |
| Cracks appear in MMA over Opposition leader's issue |
| 2002-11-23 |
| Maulana Fazlur Rehman is set to become the opposition leader in the National Assembly, sources close to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal told Dawn on Friday. But a Jamaat-i-Islami leader claimed that JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed would be the opposition leader as he was elected parliamentary leader of the alliance much before the election of the prime minister. A little difference of opinion here? MMA leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that the Jamaat-i-Islami leader was elected parliamentary leader of the alliance and would remain so. "According to parliamentary traditions one who trails in numbers game in the election for leader of the House is a natural choice for the leader of the opposition," Mr Ahmed said. Going by the principle, the PPP had lost the race for the second strongest slot in the National Assembly by losing its 10 votes to pro-government coalition led by the PML-Q, said political observers. A leader of the MMA said that Makhdoom Amin Fahim of the PPP or Makhdoom Shah Mehmud Qureshi may be nominated as deputy leader of the opposition. "Yeah. We can toss 'em a few crumbs. Send 'em some turbans, though..." When asked whether Qazi Hussain Ahmed, being the parliamentary leader of the MMA, would not be given the slot of opposition leader, the MMA leader said, he would continue to be the parliamentary leader of the religio-political alliance as would Amin Fahim be in the case of the PPP and Javed Hashmi of PML-N. However, one thing which gives some satisfaction to the Jamali-led fragile government is that the two major opposition groups, the MMA and PPP, have so far demonstrated their agreement to disagree on making a coalition between themselves. They failed to field a single candidate against Jamali even though they had lost the vital ten votes of forward bloc in the People's Party Parliamentarians. Crooks and lunatics usually don't make a natural alliance, except for the short term... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |