August 14, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 15, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, Aug 13: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leader, Liaquat Baloch, on Wednesday said the opposition would soon launch a movement if the government continued to adopt delaying tactics on the LFO issue.

Speaking at a press conference at the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club, Mr Baloch said the government was not sincere in resolving the controversial issue. He said the MMA would not wait long for the resolution of the LFO issue and would mobilize the public against the military ruler.

To a question as to whether the August 14 rally was the first part of the movement, the MMA leader said the announcement would be made in the rally. A meeting of the MMA top leaders has been convened in Islamabad on Thursday morning in which the future strategy will be devised and then announced in the rally, he added.

Asked about the possibility of MMA-ARD coming together, he said in the forthcoming session of the National Assembly, the two alliances would launch a joint struggle against the LFO. He said there were no serious differences between the MMA and the ARD.

Mr Baloch criticized the government for, what he called, its failure to solve the problems of the common man. He said the government’s interior, foreign, economic and cultural policies had failed.

He repeated the MMA’s stand on issues like sending of troops to Iraq, recognition of Israel, independence of the judiciary, and said it would not change whatsoever.

A committee, headed by Maulana Samiul Haq, had been formed which would take stock of all aspects of sending troops to Iraq and prepare a verdict in the light of the Shariat. The committee, he said, had completed its work and would announce the Fatwa Fatwa in Thursday’s rally.

He appreciated the decisions of the PML-N and PPP to shift the venue of their rally to Lahore from Liaquat Bagh.

Top MMA leaders including Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Samiul Haq, Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi, Prof Sajid Mir and others would speak at the rally.