PESHAWAR, April 27: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed has advised President Gen Pervez Musharraf to give up what he called “his stubbornness” on the controversial Legal Framework Order.

Qazi, who is also senior vice-president of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, said the opposition was waging a struggle to save the country from autocratic rule and restore the supremacy of parliament.

“Gen Musharraf must abandon his uncivil attitude and show flexibility on the controversial sections of the LFO. The MMA is ready to accept him as president for the next five years if he (Musharraf) sheds his military uniform,” he said.

Addressing the annual general council meeting of Jamaat-i-Islami here at the Al-Markaz-i-Islami on Sunday, Qazi reiterated MMA’s stand on LFO, saying that the alliance will not accept Musharraf as president unless he relinquished the office of the chief of army staff and took a fresh mandate from parliament.

“I swear we (MMA) will not let him address the joint session of parliament in uniform,” said Qazi in an emotional tone as a large number of JI workers chanted “God is Great”.

“It is a fact that Musharraf is a failed president, but MMA is still ready to accept him as the civilian head of state for the next five years,” he said, and asked Gen Musharraf to accept the offer.

He said that no progress had been made in the initial round of talks between the government and the combined opposition, and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali only explained the controversial points of the LFO before the opposition.

He added that the MMA was ready for some give-and-take on LFO, but would never compromise on the supremacy of parliament. He said that during the talks, the combined opposition had offered support to the prime minister, if he (Mr Jamali) showed his muscles and restored supremacy of parliament and the Constitution.

The presidential powers of dissolving assemblies and appointment of the armed forces chiefs, judges and governors should be abolished, he said.

Qazi asserted that the Supreme Court had no constitutional and legal authority to ask the president to bring certain amendments to the Constitution. He said that President Musharraf had obliged the SC judges by extending their retirement age.

He asked the MMA government in the NWFP to expedite its work for Islamization in the province. He said that MMA should bring revolutionary changes in the province, and asked the MPAs not to succumb to the pressure of the secular press directed against the MMA policies.