Pakistan Islamist coalition near collapse

[Neo]

‘Pakistan Islamist coalition near collapse’​

(AFP)

11 December 2007

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s main alliance of Islamist parties was near collapse Tuesday after cancelling a last-ditch meeting to resolve differences over a possible election boycott, party officials said.

The alliance was formed in 2002 and won control of North West Frontier Province on the back of fierce anti-US sentiment over the toppling of the Taleban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

But the six leading fundamentalist parties that constitute the alliance—the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Front—are split over taking part in the January 8 election amid fears that the polls will be unfair.

“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 Ahmed, who heads the hardline Sunni Muslim Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party.

The principal division is between JI, which wants a boycott, and the pro-Taleban Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), which favours taking part as it has a significant number of parliamentary seats.

JUI chief Fazlur Rehman said his party was making efforts to save the alliance.

“People have a good opinion about us, we have done well in North West Frontier Province (in 2002),” he told state television. “We are trying to save MMA.”

Senior MMA leader Liaquat Baloch confirmed that a meeting of the alliance’s supreme council scheduled for Tuesday had been called off.

“The reason is that some of the parties have opposed a boycott of elections. It was not possible to reach a unanimous decision,” he told AFP.

“A meeting of the alliance leaders would have increased bitterness, so we decided not to hold the meeting.”

The MMA’s success in the 2002 elections raised international fears about the growing influence of hardline Islam in the political life of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

But the alliance has been credited domestically with reducing some of the fiery tensions between Muslim sects as it groups both Sunni and Shiite Muslim parties.

Khaleej Times Online - ‘Pakistan Islamist coalition near collapse’

 

[khanz]

yes thank god I hate these islamist parties done nothing for pakistan but hold it back and keep women suppressed what exactly did they do for nwfp but ban music ?? good riddance I hope !

 

[Neo]

You sound like a secular person

 

[UnKnOwN]

Most people that grew up in Western countries are secular

 

[KEWAN]

yaar ye to hona hi tha yahan sub mufaad ki syasat krtay hain

 

[khanz]

i'm not secular I just want whoever helps the people most if there was a religious party who advocated islam but without forcing it on people and atleast made the provinces prosper i'd support them but so far these religious parties have done absolutely nothing but pointless and backwards things .
There is so many problems in these areas and all these guys do is take away some of the little joy these people have instead of focusing on important issues.Build schools,hospitals,tackle poverty, improve infrastructure no ! ban music and forbid and harass women from taking part in activities yes shows where their priorities lie.This is exactly what jinnah didn't want.