ISLAMABAD July 3: The agenda of the All Parties’ Conference convened by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) at Lahore on Sunday is likely to undergo a tacit change from what was earlier announced by the MMA leaders, sources said.
The agenda originally set for the APC was to assess the impact of President General Pervez Musharraf’s four-nation tour, the $3 billion economic package announced by the US and the as-yet-undisclosed strings attached to it.
However, the situation has taken a serious turn since the verdict announced by a Peshawar election tribunal unseating an MMA MNA on the grounds that his sanad was not equivalent to the graduation degree.
Sources said that besides all political and religious parties, the heads of five major seminaries had also been invited to the APC.
Talking to Dawn on Thursday, MMA’s deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch said the APC would discuss, among other things, various options to respond to Gen Musharraf’s bashing of the opposition throughout his tour.
Mr Baloch said the APC would discuss all issues, including the proposal to send Pakistani soldiers to Iraq, recognition of Israel, reports of freezing the country’s nuclear programme, an alleged shift in the Kashmir policy and interference in the seminaries’ affairs.
An MMA source said that the opposition parties would take a tougher stance on the Legal Framework Order as well. The APC may also give a strike call to protest against the unconstitutional actions of the government.
Quoting Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, sources said legislators of combined opposition could also resign en bloc if MMA members were unseated or the government continued pressuring them.
Mr Baloch said in opposition’s view all main organs of the government, including the president, the Chief of the Army Staff, the chief justice, etc., had become controversial and unacceptable to the nation.
He said the Supreme Court had no moral or legal power to issue decree on sanads issued by the seminaries. If so happened, he warned, it would entail an unending struggle.
