ARD dismayed at MMA decision
Soon after presiding over a joint meeting of the central executive committee and the federal council of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, Makhdoom Amin Fahim visited the residence of MMA general secretary and chief of JUI-F Maulana Fazlur Rehman to convey the feelings of the ARD over the MMA’s decision to wait till Dec 18 for the government’s response on the proposed constitutional package.
Sources told Dawn that the ARD had been “greatly disappointed” with the MMA’s decision and had started probing the possibility of launching anti-government campaign without waiting for the latter to make up its mind. However, final decision in this regard will be taken after consultation with all component parties of the ARD, particularly the PML-N, and exiled leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the sources said.
They said the MMA’s decision had strengthened the group within the ARD which was against any type of cooperation with the religious alliance keeping in view its past record. They said some members of the PPP during the CEC meeting severely criticized the religious alliance and asked the party leadership not to align itself with the MMA in future.
Those opposed to continuing the struggle jointly with the MMA reportedly argued that it would not make any difference to either the MMA or the government one way or the other if the ARD and the MMA parted ways because the prime minister and his ruling alliance had already expelled the ARD from all kinds of negotiations on the LFO which the MMA did not find unjustified and kept talking to the government as if it was the sole representative of parliamentary opposition.
The mounting anger of the members within the party against MMA’s attitude forced Makhdoom Amin Fahim to hold a meeting with Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Talking to a group of newsmen soon after the meeting, Maulana Fazl said the MMA had given one more chance to the government which could be its last chance to resolve the LFO issue. He reiterated that there would be no further talks on the LFO between the government and the MMA.
When asked whether the MMA and the ARD had agreed to launch a joint struggle against the military government, the Maulana said there would be a meeting between the two alliances after Eid to chalkout the future strategy.
Replying to a question that why the MMA had given one more month to the government, he said actually the opposition itself wanted to gain some time in order to organize its workers and activists for the forthcoming agitation against the government.
He rejected the government’s claim that the opposition parties do not have street power. He said it seemed that the government was taking things lightly and was not serious in resolving the political crisis.
Speaking on the occasion, ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim said the alliance had already launched its mass contact campaign and was determined to launch anti-government movement after Eid.
Earlier, briefing the newsmen after the party’s CEC meeting, PPP general secretary Jahangir Badr said the party had chalked out a plan to celebrate its founding day in a befitting manner.
He said public meetings would be held throughout the country from Nov 30 to Dec 10 and the first such gathering would be held in Rawalpindi. He said another major public meeting would be held at Mochi Gate in Lahore on Dec 7.
The meeting, he said, also condemned the arrests of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Asif Zardari, Pir Mukarram Shah, Allama Sajid Naqvi and others, who had been arrested as part of “political victimization.”
Meanwhile, the sources said the PPP had announced public meetings in connection with the founding day. They said the party wanted to gain some time to see the outcome of the MMA’s deadline given to the government. They said if the ARD decided to launch the movement without the MMA, then there was a chance that it would formally begin the movement from Dec 7 the day it would hold its first public meeting at Mochi Gate in Lahore.