LAHORE, April 14: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Qazi Husain Ahmad, who also heads the Jamaat-i-Islami, says any legislative business transacted by the present parliament will be devoid of legality as long as an “illegitimate president” is at the helm.

Appearing for a Dawn Dialogue interview here, he reiterated the MMA’s offer to get Gen Pervez Musharraf elected president by the assemblies provided he shed his military uniform. But the Qazi apprehends that the offer will be overtaken by circumstances, plunging the country into a more difficult situation.

The Jamaat leader said by joining hands, the PML-Q and the MMA could remove Gen Musharraf as president as together they would have the two-thirds majority required for the purpose in the two houses of parliament.

He defended the MMA’s cooperation with the PPP and the PML-N, the two parties which until recently the Jamaat-i-Islami was branding as bigger and lesser evils and two faces of the same coin. This opinion, he said, was not an edict of a permanent nature nor an obstacle to political cooperation with the two parties. Political parties, he stressed, could change strategies to meet the requirements of given situations.

Qazi Husain Ahmed said the exiled leadership of the PPP and the PML-N should be allowed to return home and be tried, if necessary, under the law of the land.

He said Asif Zardari, the incarcerated husband of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, had completed almost a life term behind bars but no charge against him had been proved.

He said it was the MMA’s right to nominate opposition leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate since the alliance had more seats in the two houses as compared to the PPP and the PML-N. He said though components of the ARD, the two parties were separate entities.

In response to a question, he said the MMA and the PML-Q had settled their differences on a number of thorny issues. But the talks struck a dead end when Gen Musharraf refused to give up his COAS post despite the religious parties’ offer that he would be elected president through the procedure laid down in the Constitution.