The top leadership of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has decided to give one month to the Pervez Musharraf government to accept its demands, threatening otherwise to begin a countrywide campaign against the government.
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The decision was taken at a three-hour meeting of central leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal at Allama Shah Ahmed Nooraniâs house late Monday night. Maulana Noorani presided over the meeting. The MMA leaders also said they did not accept the ban on three religious outfits and demanded an immediate end to it. The MMA meeting said the Musharraf government had just one month to present a package of constitutional amendments and the Legal Framework Order in the National Assembly — which they earlier discussed with the government. A nine-member committee has been set up for the impending anti-government campaign under the chairmanship of Maulana Samiul Haq. Members of the committee have been taken from MMAâs component parties and include Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Liaqat Baloch, Pir Ijaz Hashmi, Shabbir Abu Talib, Abdul Gafoor Hayderi, Senator Gul Nasib Khan, Mufti Yar Usmani and Abdul Jaleel Naqvi.
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Maulana Fazlur Rehman earlier accused the military and intelligence agencies of being responsible for sectarian trouble in the country because they were the creators of the sectarian groups. The maulana, who heads his own mob faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, went on to say. âFirst, the government bans a (sectarian) group, then permits its leader to contest elections, then uses his vote for the election of the prime minister of the establishmentâs choice,â he said, clearly alluding to the recently assassinated Maulana Azam Tariq. âThen it bans the group again.â
He said the MMA, of which he is secretary general, created sectarian harmony in the country and made efforts to end sectarianism. He described the ban on the religious groups as a âpolitical tacticâ mainly intended to turn peopleâs attention from the MMAâs struggle against the Legal Framework Order. âThe rulers want to put this great struggle of ours in the background by banning one of the parties of the alliance,â he said, referring to the Tehrik-e-Islami Pakistan. He also warned of a situation like that in the former East Pakistan, charging, âThe rulers want to break Pakistan againâ.
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