MMA leader draws fire from woman journalist

Islamabad | By A Correspondent | 27/10/2002
Gulf News Online

A leader of the religious alliance aspiring to rule after its recent impressive success in the elections provoked a local female journalist at a news conference here on Friday after he asked her not to stand behind him.

Liaquat Baloch, who is deputy chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, a key component of the six-party alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), told the journalist to step aside because he did not like to be photographed or shown on television with a woman close beside him, witnesses said.

Just as the press conference ended the journalist walked up to Baloch and angrily admonished him, they said.

"While you are not yet in power you have already started showing how you intend to treat womenfolk," a witness quoted the woman as saying to Baloch.

The Jamaat leader, in turn told her she had to follow "ethics" as journalists were supposed to be in front and not standing behind those addressing a news conference.

The row divided the journalists, with one group telling the journalist to behave and the others defending her against what they called a "display of discrimination against women".

The rumpus came to an end on the intervention of some senior journalists who tried to calm tempers.

The MMA contested the elections on a platform pledging to promote Islamic values and culture and purge the country of Western influence and American military presence.

After the October 10 elections MMA leaders have repeatedly stated they had no intention to establish Taliban-style government and that women would have full rights in accordance with Islamic tenets.

MMA is set to form government in North-West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan and play influential role in the other border province of Balochistan.

It secured third position in National Assembly and is negotiating coalition deals at the centre with both PML-QA, the largest single parliamentary party, and with the PPPP, the second largest group in the hung parliament.