March 9, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 5, 1424

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NOWSHERA, March 8: Jam-aat-i-Islami Amir and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal parliamentary party leader in the National Assembly Qazi Hussain Ahmad has said the MMA will not attend the assembly proceedings till the restoration of the 1973 Constitution and true democracy in the country.

Qazi Hussain said any parliamentarian who considered the Legal Framework Order as part of the Constitution would have to face Article 6, “which states that those who alter any of part of the Constitution, except the parliament, is tantamount to treachery, for which the minimum punishment is death.”

It did not matter who called the LFO as part of the Constitution, may it be Pervez Musharraf, Lt-Gen Tanvir Hussain Naqvi (retired) or judges of superior courts, they would have to face Article 6, he said while talking to newsmen here on Saturday.

Welcoming Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s offer for talks on the LFO, Qazi Hussain said they were ready to hold negotiations, but ruled out sitting in the assembly until the extra-constitutional order was withdrawn and true democracy restored in the country.

The JI chief said only parliament had the power to introduce amendments in the Constitution with two-thirds majority.

The supremacy of parliament would be upheld at all costs, he added.

The MMA leader reiterated that the Jamaat-i-Islami had no links with Al Qaeda, and alleged the government tried to pressurize it over Sheikh Khalid Mohammad’s case.