Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President Qazi Hussain Ahmed said on Monday that five parties of the six-party religious alliance were in favour of boycotting the elections and MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman was free to quit the alliance if he wanted to contest the polls.Qazi was talking to reporters after attending an APDM meeting here. “Fazl is free to leave the MMA if he decides to contest the elections. The MMA is still sticking to the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM)’s decision to boycott the elections,” he added. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif was also present on the occasion.
Fazl surprised: Fazl said he was surprised at QaziÂ’s statement. He said that Qazi had no right to give such statement in individual capacity. Talking to Geo News, he said that it was too premature to comment on QaziÂ’s statement. However, he said the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) had more public support than QaziÂ’s Jamaat-e-Islami.
Fazl said that he was unable to understand why Qazi gave this statement, adding that both of them had decided to carry on talks on the boycott issue and hold joint discussions with Nawaz Sharif. He said the future of MMA would depend on QaziÂ’s attitude since he was the allianceÂ’s president. He said the JUI-F was not part of the APDM.