LAHORE, July 6: The MMA is still keeping its doors open for further talks with the government, and has “not” explicitly withdrawn its offer to Gen Musharraf that religious parties would help him get elected president through assemblies if he steps down as COAS.

“We may have to withdraw the offer in view of the (confrontational) course being pursued by the general,” MMA vice-president Qazi Husain Ahmad said while answering a question at the conclusion of a day-long all-party conference at Mansoora on Sunday.

MMA chairman Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani presided over the APC, held a day after a meeting of the ARD, which also decided to ratchet up pressure to change the existing system.

Parties in the ruling coalition, though invited, were conspicuous by their absence, possibly because of the APC’s anti-government agenda and the no-trust motion the opposition has moved against the NA deputy speaker.

The MMA, the ARD and some other parties outside the fold of the two alliances, said that Gen Musharraf was not the elected president and his tenure as army chief had also expired in October 2001, as no competent authority had extended it.

A central MMA leader told Dawn subsequently that it was a great achievement of the MMA that it had taken the PPP on board. “We wanted to set a stage for further action against the government...and we have succeeded in achieving the target,” he said.

Before finalizing the declartion, leaders of all parties expressed their views on the situation in the country, the way the government was “mishandling the situation” and the course the opposition should follow.

Qazi Husain Ahmed told a questioner if any MMA legislator was unseated, the religious parties’ alliance could resign en bloc, and come out on the streets, the consequences of which were not very difficult to predict.

The APC decided that the opposition parties would hold a joint protest meeting in Rawalpindi on August 14.

A steering committee comprising Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani and Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan was formed to give future line of action for a joint struggle against the rulers.

The joint declaration adopted by the participants said the LFO was not part of the Constitution and Gen Musharraf had committed an illegality by declaring himself as president through the referendum. Parliament and provincial assemblies should elect a new president in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Constitution, it said.

The declaration said that under parliamentary conventions it was for the prime minister to undertake state visits to other countries. Holding that Gen Musharraf’s four-nation tour amounted to negating the traditions, the declaration made it clear that the nation was not bound to honour the commitments made by him.

The participants also addressed the issue of political prisoners, saying Asif Ali Zardari and others should be set free without delay. Similarly, they said, to create a conducive political atmosphere, Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif should not be stopped from coming home.

The declaration rejected moves to send Pakistani troops to Iraq, saying opposition parties would not allow the authorities to take such a decision.

About the disqualification of an MMA MNA, the declaration said it was a political, and not a judicial, verdict aimed at pressuring the opposition.

The APC alleged that Gen Musharraf was violating the Constitution by destabilizing the NWFP government.

It was regrettable, the declaration said, that extremists had been given a free hand in Sindh and a party in power was openly raising separatist slogans.

The APC alleged that the NAB had failed in discharging its duties and had been used by the rulers more for political motives.