Religious parties fail to revive MMA

LAHORE: Central leaders of six religio-political parties met in Lahore on Sunday to evolve a consensus on the revival of their 2002 electoral alliance – the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) – but failed to narrow down their differences.

However, they agreed to meet again in the federal capital to decide the fate of their alliance.
“The meeting participants agreed that efforts for the revival of the MMA will continue in our next meeting scheduled for July 22 in Islamabad,” Allama Sajid Mir, Vice President of the Jamaat Ahle Hadith and host of the meeting told journalists. The Islamabad meeting will be hosted by Sajid Ali Naqvi, President of the Tehrik-e-Islami, he added.

Mir said that the MMA provided a platform for defending Islam and representing the Muslim Ummah in the country. But he regretted that the alliance fell apart due to differences among its component parties.

Sunday’s meeting was considered a big success in view of strained relations between the JI and the JUI-F over the last two years.

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman tried to evade biting questions from journalists. However, he announced that his party would pull out of the ruling coalition if all component parties of the MMA made such a demand.  He added that revival of the MMA was a top priority for his party.

“As long as we are part of the ruling coalition, we will continue to achieve the objectives for which we joined the government,” he said, adding that he was being sandwiched between the MMA and the ruling coalition for “playing for the other side.”

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, former JI chief and president of the defunct MMA, tried to bail out Fazlur Rehman, saying that “he (Fazl) is moving in the right direction.”

Interestingly, Syed Munawwar Hasan, successor of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, has been bitterly criticising Maulana Fazlur Rehman for being a government ally. He has said that the MMA could not be revived as long as the JUI-F was part of the ruling coalition.
Munawwar Hasan reiterated his stance in the briefing, saying in clear terms that the MMA was neither active nor revived.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2010.