| Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) announced on Tuesday that it would end its boycott of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) meetings if the provincial government accepted its demands. Provincial ameer of JUP Owais Ahmad Qadri told Daily Times that his party leaders held a meeting with central deputy secretary general Allama Syed Shabir Ahmad Hashmi, Punjab secretary general Qari Muhammad Bahadar, MPA Akhtar Nawaz, and members of the provincial and district Shuras. He said that the meeting decided to end the boycott of MMA meetings and other programmes if their demands were accepted by the alliance in its March 20 meeting. âOur demands are genuine and if they are accepted by the MMA provincial government then we would be left with no justification to continue the boycott,â Mr Qadri said. He was optimistic the JUP demands would be accepted by the NWFP government. The JUP is a component party of the six-party religious alliance, the MMA, which threatened on September 29 last year to quit the alliance if its only MPA in the Frontier Assembly was not accommodated in the provincial cabinet. Since then the JUP has continued to boycott MMA meetings and official functions of the provincial government in order to put pressure on Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and the MMA central leadership. Mr Qadri said that the demands they had presented to the central leadership of the alliance included, a ministry in the Frontier cabinet, a slot of adviser to the chief minister, representation in the zakat committees at various levels, and say in the posting, recruitment and transfers in the government departments. |