LAHORE, Jan 3: Smaller components of the six-party religious alliance Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) complain that they are being ignored in policy-making.

After the death of MMA president Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, larger constituents of the alliance, the Jamaat-i-Islami led by Qazi Husain Ahmad and the JUI-F led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, are calling the shots without taking into confidence their colleagues, leaders of two smaller components complained while talking to Dawn here on Saturday.

They pointed out that for holding further talks with the government on the LFO issue and signing the deal, they were told that the same two-man committee comprising Liaqat Baloch of the JI and Hafiz Husain Ahmad of the JUI-F would continue to work which had been constituted by the late Noorani. It was argued that "it will be a sort of tribute to the departed soul," they said.

But nobody bothered to inform other components before signing the deal, while a third person, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, also signed the agreement in violation of the decision, they regretted.

Either Maulana Fazl should not have accompanied the committee or one representative of each of the six parties should also have been taken to the document-signing ceremony, they said.

They claimed that MPAs of the JUP and the defunct Islami Tehrik Pakistan had voted for Gen Musharraf in Thursday's confidence vote because they had not been informed in time about the MMA policy on the issue.

Every MPA took a decision on the basis of whatever information he could collect through divergent media reports, they added.

A woman MPA thrice phoned provincial leaders of the JUP on Wednesday night to seek directions about the trust vote as her efforts to contact MMA parliamentary leader Asghar Gujar for the purpose failed.

Unscheduled meetings of JI and JUI-F leaders with the federal and provincial governments continued while workers of other components of the religious alliance felt isolated and sidelined, they deplored. "If the situation persists, we don't think that we could work together."