Apparently faced with the trickiest question of whether or not to resign from the National Assembly, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal top leadership started the two-day deliberations on Wednesday.
Major stakeholder Jamiat Ulema Islam (Fazl) Shoora after the three-day discussions has changed its stance and opposed quitting the assembly, which increased tension in the MMA Parliamentary Party and Supreme Council meeting, sources said.
It could be the make or break meeting for the six-party alliance unless MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed took a U-turn on his decision to turn his back to the assembly. "I will not sit in this assembly even if others preferred to continue being part of it," he had told a group of journalists last week.
Needless to say JUI's changed policy on resignation issue is likely to give a new turn to the already polarised politics. The MMA Supreme Council in its previous meeting last month, following the National Assembly adopting the women protection bill, had decided to resign en bloc after their parliamentary party meeting on December 6-7.
In order to avert a crisis-like situation in case the alliance resigns, the government tactfully delayed the assembly session, which was expected early this month.
However, since that time, rapid developments have taken place and the most important is that Qazi has hardened his stance on resignations while Maulana Fazl has aired the idea of launching a countrywide movement instead of quitting the assembly.
"We will force the government to review the bill, repealing anti-Islam clauses. We will use the parliament as an effective platform to build pressure on rulers," sources quoted Maulana Fazl as telling the Shoora.
The council and parliamentary party under Qazi Hussain Ahmed, have to evolve consensus on the timing of quitting the assembly, as MMA faces sharply divergent views on the option: Jamaat-i-Islami insists on saying goodbye to the assembly while Maulana Fazlur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema Islam thinks otherwise.
Jamiat Ulema Pakistan has already decided like Jamaat to resign from the lower house of the parliament, irrespective of the parliamentary party's decision.
Earlier in the day, Maulana Fazlur Rehman's JUI Shoora formally recommended to MMA leadership to delay implementation of the MMA Supreme Council decision.
JUI's former secretary general Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, who is deputy secretary general of MMA, stuck to his guns that the Shoora could not challenge a decision taken by the Supreme Council.
Sources told Business Recorder that Hafiz clearly told the Shoora that his decision not to sit in the assembly was categorical and he was prepared to face any action consequent to it.
Contrary to his position, veteran politician and religious expert MNA Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, Senator Dr Khalid Soomro and some other like-minded JUI leaders cautioned against 'prematurely' quitting the assembly.
Sources claimed that these leaders proposed that the 'extreme decision' should not be taken in a haste and launching a movement to send the rulers packing.
They were of the view that the Shoora should not ignore a proposal floated by various opposition parties, including Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) that the resignations should be collective.
JUI, which held deliberations for three days, contended that in the given situation, it would be prudent to wage a war inside and outside the parliament.
The Shoora said that JUI should be cautious of the intrigues being hatched to disintegrate MMA to the benefit of other opposition parties.
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