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Pak religious parties differ on sharing power

Differences among Pakistan's hardline Islamic religious parties have come to the fore hardly a month after their significant victory in the general elections.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, main component of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance, has publicly objected to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami's chief ministerial candidate, Akram Khan Durrani, for the North West Frontier Province.

Issuing a statement in Islamabad, the Jamaat-e-Islami said Durrani's nomination was not valid till the MMA's central committee, which was scheduled to meet on Thursday, approved it.

According to reports in local daily The News, the Jamaat-e-Islami objected to Durrani's candidature as he is not a cleric.

"The Jamaat-e-Islami leadership also appears unhappy that the beardless Durrani had been preferred to other capable, but bearded contenders for the chief minister's job," the report said.

Durrani's nomination is being interpreted as an attempt to appease the 'powerful military-led Pakistani establishment as well as the Western countries,' the report said.

But, the Jamaat-e-Islami, which was the biggest of the six religious parties that comprised the MMA, has not cited any objections. It has its strongholds in Punjab and Sindh, where the MMA fared moderately, winning only 20 seats in the provincial assembly.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami, the MMA's second largest faction led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, emerged as the biggest party by winning 29 of the 48 seats won by the MMA, in its strongholds in the NWFP and the Baluchistan provinces bordering Afghanistan.

The strength of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami in the provincial and national legislature parties of the MMA prompted the alliance to nominate Fazlur Rehman as its prime ministerial candidate.

According to The News, the Jamaat-e-Islami was offered the posts of NWFP assembly speaker and senior minister.

The Jamaat-e-Islami had proposed the name of Rehman for prime ministership hoping to get the chief ministership in the NWFP.

But the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami was in no mood to give up the chief minister's job in the Frontier, and therefore hurriedly nominated its candidate for that office.

The MMA has hit the headlines after the elections, demanding the closure of American airbases in Pakistan and calling for a halt to the crackdown on the Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in Pakistan.

PTI

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