Intra-Deobandis differences in MMA’s leading parties go unresolved

The Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, two major Deobandi parties in Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), have failed t sort out their differences over MMA’s candidature for the NA-44, Bara constituency where JI and JUI-F nominees are contesting against each other.

JI chief Sirajul Haq told an election rally in Speen Qabar area of Bara that his party’s member Shah Faisal Afridi was the MMA candidate in NA-44.
“Shah Faisal is the only candidate in all seven tribal regions whom JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman had awarded the MMA ticket by himself,” he claimed. JI declares its nominee MMA candidate; JUI-F says alliance doesn’t exist in tribal regions
Mr Siraj said the local JUI-F activists should support Shah Faisal as the MMA candidate instead of fielding own candidate.
The contestant Shah Faisal regretted that the Election Commission of Pakistan had allotted him the loud speaker’s symbol instead of the MMA’s symbol which was book.
On the other hand, the JUI-F leaders in Bara insisted that the MMA didn’t exist in tribal regions and therefore, the claims about its member parties developing consensus on candidates in Bara or other tribal areas were misleading.
Mufti Kafeel, Cleric Muqtaseem Shah, Maulana Said Jalal and Maulana Mohammad Anwar told reporters at the Bara Press Club that their party’s association with the MMA in Khyber ended when JI candidate Shah Faisal refused to accept book as his election symbol.
They said the JUI-F chief had proposed Shah Faisal as MMA candidate for NA-44 but later a deadlock emerged on the matter when Shah Faisal rejected the book symbol.
The JUI-F leaders also claimed that JI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief Senator Mushtaq Ahmad had announced few weeks ago that the MMA member parties would contest elections in tribal regions on their own over failure to develop consensus on candidates.
They said cleric Shamsuddin Afridi was the JUI-F candidate in Bara and therefore, the party’s activists wouldn’t support any other candidate.
Meanwhile, JI leader Zar Noor Afridi, who is contesting election as an independent candidate in NA-43 (Landi Kotal-Jamrud), has denied withdrawal in favour of another contestant from his own tribe.
He said he was neither his party’s nor MMA’s candidate and that he wouldn’t leave the field open to other opportunist candidates.