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MMA still undecided on NSC participation: Qazi warns he will quit as MMA chief

* Meeting asks Qazi to withdraw threat

By Qamar Jabbar

LAHORE: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Supreme Council has still not decided on permitting Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman and NWFP Chief Minister Muhammad Akram Durrani to participate in the June 8 National Security Council (NSC) meeting.

MMA Deputy Secretary General Liaqat Baloch told Daily Times after the meeting on Tuesday that the MMA component parties would likely discuss the issue again on June 6 in Islamabad.

He said the religious alliance differed on letting Fazl and Akram Durrani attend the NSC meeting.

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is against the two men participating in the NSC meeting while the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami and Tehrik-e-Islami leaders favour their participation.

Fazl chaired the Supreme Council meeting in JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad’s absence. He decided the religious alliance would strike on June 3 against terrorism in the country and the desecration of the Quran by US troops at Guantanamo Bay.

Liaqat Baloch read out a letter faxed by Qazi before the meeting, which said he would resign as MMA president if Akram Durrani were allowed to attend the NSC meeting. Qazi was in Karachi to attend the funeral of JI Naib Ameer Aslam Mujahid.

Liaqat Baloch told Daily Times that all MMA components had their own view about Fazl and Akram Durrani participating the NSC meeting. He said the JI did not want them to participate. However, the Supreme Council meeting urged Qazi to withdraw his letter. Fazl also asked the other components to avoid making statements about his and Akram Durrani’s participation in the NSC meeting till a final decision was taken by the religious alliance.

Liaqat Baloch said Qazi being the MMA president wanted the alliance to remain together. “We are ready to talk to the NWFP JUI-F and JUI-S separately on the participation issue. If Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz presides over the NSC meeting, the MMA doesn’t object to sending its representative to the meeting, but in the presence of a uniformed president, we will not participate in the meeting,” he read out from Qazi’s letter.

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