MMA to contest polls: Fazl

* JUI-F chief rules out division in the ranks of MMA
* Qazi says MMA no longer political alliance, merely a religious one

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)’s Supreme Council on Tuesday decided to contest the general elections under the umbrella of the MMA and chose ‘book’ as their election symbol, reported Dawn News.

Speaking to reporters after a Supreme Council meeting – earlier called off by MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed, but later reconvened by Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman – in Islamabad, Fazl said four out of the six component parties of the MMA would contest the forthcoming elections from the platform of the MMA. He said the MMA had established a central parliamentary board headed by himself, which would submit a fresh list of female and minority candidates for the reserved seats to the Election Commission.

Rules out division: He ruled out any division among the ranks of the six-party religious alliance and said the MMA was intact. Although Fazl said the MMA was still headed by Qazi - who heads the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) as well - the JI and JUI-Sami did not attend the meeting, the channel reported.

The MMA was near collapse earlier on Tuesday after the last-ditch meeting of the Supreme Council to resolve differences over a possible election boycott was cancelled, AFP quoted party officials as saying.

“It is an alliance by name only,” the alliance’s chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, told Geo television. “We are not dissolving it. We want relations to continue so that at some later stage we could sit together again, once the drama of the fraudulent election is over,” he said.

“This election will strengthen the hands of dictatorship,” said Qazi. The principal division is between JI, which wants a boycott, and the JUI-F, which favours taking part.

Religious alliance: Qazi told reporters that the MMA was not a political and electoral alliance anymore, but merely a religious one, Online reported. He said that every component party was taking decisions on its own, so the Supreme Council meeting had no value. Earlier, sources within the alliance had said that Fazl had formed a new MMA minus the JI and JUI-S, which would prepare its election manifesto and contest the polls with the election symbol of ‘book’, Daily Times staff reporter adds. daily times monitor/agencies/staff report

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Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.