Islamabad: Pakistan's Muthahida Majlis Amal, (MMA) on Thursday averted a split in its ranks by putting off its earlier move to ask members of the National Assembly to resign to protest the recent amendments to the rape and adultery provisions ofHudood ordinance, which the six-party Islamist party regards as Islamic law.
A meeting of the Supreme Council of the alliance on Thursday decided to consider the decision after Bakra-Eid early next year.
The decision came in the wake of strong differences between dominant partners of MMA, the Jamaat-Ulema-Islami (JUI) headed by Fazlur Rehman and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) led by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who differed publicly on the issue of resignations.
Hussain, whose organisation has taken a strong stand against President Musharraf and his policies, wants MPs to resign from the National Assembly.
Rehman, who was considered to be more close to Musharraf, opposed such a move saying that the time was not ripe.
Instead, he advocated a more moderate approach, including mass agitations to oppose the amendments.
Ahmad told media persons after the meeting that the decision was put off to avert a split in the alliance, which had over 60 members in the National Assembly and headed the provincial government in NWFP and shared power with the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim Legue-Q, (PML-Q) in the southwest Balochistan province.
Rehman does not want to "rock the boat" as the government has already warned that it would hold by-polls to fill the vacancies if MMA MPs resigned. He was also afraid that the MMA government in NWFP may be dismissed before the completion of its term.
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