PESHAWAR: The five-party religio-political alliance, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, formed in 2002 to contest the coming general elections, has came to an end for all practical reasons after the sole elected MPA of one of its major members has distanced himself from the coalition.

However, there is no formal statement in this respect.

“We [the Jamaat-i-Islami lawmakers] are not part of the MMA. We’ve separate status in the Assembly,” said Inayatullah Khan, elected on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat PK-12 (Upper Dir-III) in general elections 2018 on MMA ticket.

He served as the provincial minister twice, as the health minister in MMA government (2002-2008) and as the senior minister for local government in the last PTI government (2013-2018).

Jamaat MPA says his party part of joint opposition in assembly not MMA’s

The MMA was revived in Dec 2017. The JI had boycotted the 2008 general elections and opted to take a solo flight to contest the 2013 general polls.

Mr Inayatullah told Dawn that the alliance didn’t exist either inside or outside the legislatures.

“Our party has already cleared its position on the future of the alliance to other partners of the coalition,” he said.

The JI MPA said the matter had also been discussed with the Election Commission of Pakistan, which “explained to us that the Constitution’s defection provision does not apply to a political party, which leaves an electoral alliance.”

Mr Inayatullah has been allotted chair in the provincial assembly just behind Leader of Opposition Akram Khan Durrani, who belongs to the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and is also the parliamentary leader of the MMA.

He declared himself the parliamentary leader of the JI.

“JI has only three MPAs in the assembly. If our number increases to five, we would ask the Speaker to allot us separate seats on the opposition benches,” he said.

Mr Inayatullah said: “I am the parliamentary leader of JI in the KP Assembly. We’re part of the joint opposition in the assembly but we shouldn’t be considered part of the MMA.”

The strength of JI in the provincial assembly has jumped to three after its candidate from Bajaur tribal district, Sirajuddin, romped home on PK-102 (Bajaur-II) elections in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on July 20.

The party has approached independent MPAs-elect from tribal districts to rope them in.

Mr Inayatullah confirmed that his party was in contact with independent MPAs-elect to convince them to join it.

PARTY POSITION IN PA: The entry of 21 MPAs-elect from tribal districts will change the position of political parties in the provincial assembly.

The ruling PTI has won five general seats in the July 20 election, while two independents, Shafiq Afridi from Khyber and Ghazan Jamal from Orakzai, have also joined it, enabling it to grab two women seats and one seat for religious minorities.

The PTI’s tally will reach 95 in the 145-member house. Negotiations are under way to convince the remaining independent MPAs-elect from tribal districts to join the party.

The JUI-F has won three seats in the merged districts and its number of MPAs will reach 14 excluding reserved seats. It is likely to capture at least one reserved seat for women.

The Awami National Party will improve its position from 11 to 12 seats in the assembly after winning one seat from Mohmand tribal district.

The Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz having five and six MPAs respectively did not win any seat in the recent polls.

The PML-Quaid has one seat and three independents in the assembly.

The MPAs-elect are likely to take oath in the second week of August.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2019