DAWN, November 10, 2007

MMA won't go all out in protest against govt

By Amjad Mahmood

LAHORE, Nov 9: Neither the Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal nor one of its major components Jamaat-i-Islami is coherent in launching a campaign against the government over the imposition of emergency and removal of judges, sources say.

A group in the MMA being led by JUI-F's Maulana Fazlur Rehman is reluctant to go for a head-on collision with the establishment, said a top official of the alliance who requested not to be named.

He said the group wanted to show restraint while reacting to the imposition of emergency by Gen Musharraf. That was why the alliance ignored the civil disobedience call given by incarcerated MMA president Qazi Husain Ahmad and instead opted for a mild and delayed reaction of staging demonstrations at district headquarters level on Nov 16, he said.

"The (civil disobedience) call may not figure even in second and third phase of the protest strategy, which is yet to be given any shape."

The official, who had also attended Thursday's consultative meeting of the MMA, said the leaders did not seem to be in a hurry to devise a protest strategy as except announcing the Nov 16 protest the rest had been deferred until then.

He claimed that the proposal of convening a national consultative session on Nov 14 had come from Qazi, who also insisted on including the demand of restoration of judiciary to the pre-emergency composition. "This demand was otherwise not on the list of demands put up by the MMA on Thursday," he said.

It appeared, he said, that the leaders believed that something important like doffing of uniform by Gen Musharraf was going to happen by Nov 15, hence no need for an all-out agitation.

The official said there was grouping on the issue even in the Jamaat. "Except for Qazi, (secretary-general) Munawwar Hasan and a couple of other hawks supported Maulana Fazl's stance."

The group led by Qazi was being labelled as emotional people unable to take sound decisions, he said, adding that this group would soon be told to act in consonance with other components in the six-party alliance.

"Qazi will be asked not to take as well as announce unilateral decisions like he has done in the past. The alliance has already suffered a lot due to resignations of its MPs on his demand."

The official claimed that almost all parties in the religious grouping were unanimous on the issue of clipping Qazi's wings.

He said the MMA was unlikely to boycott polls under the PCO though the subject had not yet come under discussion. "Except for a couple of minor groups no mainstream party will like to remain out of the next political scenario."

The boycott of polls, he said, was possible only if all opposition parties agreed on it.