It was expected. Imran, Sharif and Qazi joining hands together on anti-Mushrraf platform. I am curious what other views they share identical with each other? Moreover, MMA talking about democracy is quite opposite in tone with what they have preched in the past, which is sharia.
LAHORE: The alliance of Islamist parties, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf will form an electoral alliance for the country’s upcoming general elections, the religious alliance’s leader has said.
In an interview yesterday, MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that these right-of-center parties had identical views on a number of issues and that they would contest elections together under an electoral alliance.
He said that the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) – grouping together MMA, PML-N, PTI and other religious and nationalist parties opposed to President General Pervez Musharraf’s policies – had been set up to wage political struggle for the restoration of democracy and it would work for attainment of that goal even if the Supreme Court legitimised Gen Pervez Musharraf’s election as president-in- army uniform.
’’The constitutional battle being fought in the apex court is different from the political movement of opposition parties. We don’t want to overburden the judiciary and will continue our political struggle,” Ahmed said.
When asked about a demand by Sharif’s party that a key member of MMA, Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema Islam, should be expelled from the APDM for its allegedly covert pro-Musharraf policies, he said if that were the yardstick, several other parties would also not qualify to remain in the movement.
He alleged that some forces were trying to divide the opposition but admitted that his party, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamiat Ulema Islam had different viewpoints on various issues. However, he hastened to add that this did not mean that the MMA would disintegrate.
**He said that JUI leader Rehman had a firm belief that since no political party could think of coming to power without the support of the military establishment, “doors of co-operation” with it should always be kept open.
He said that Rehman also did not want the MMA to become an all-out opposition alliance and he shared his ‘pragmatic thinking’ with other leaders in MMA meetings. **
Ahmed said Rehman was right in his thinking to some extent, as Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party and Sharif’s PML-N also relied on the support of the establishment in the past to enter the corridors of power.
”However, I or my party do not believe in this logic and want to come to power with the support of the people of Pakistan without depending on the establishment or any foreign power,” he added.
Answering a question, he said, he believed that the JI and JUI would remain part of the MMA despite their divergent views on different issues and that MMA would take part in general elections even if General Musharraf remained in power, although free and fair elections could not be expected under his supervision.
Ahmed warned that if the rulers tried to engineer the election results, opposition parties would convert their political movement into an agitation and ruled out the possibility of imposition of martial law, accusing Musharraf of using this threat only to perpetuate his power. — Internews
Nicely said.