August 22, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-us-Sani 23, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 21: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leaders on Thursday blasted what they described as the constitutional crisis “created by Gen Musharraf-led regime” which they said was threatening the integrity of the country.

Speaking at a largely-attended all-Pakistan convention of the Jamiat-i-Talaba Arabia (JTA), the MMA leaders declared that they would resist all efforts at subjugating the free will of the people and would thwart attempts at undermining parliament’s supremacy.

MMA’s secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman threatened to give tough time to Gen Musharraf who he alleged was trying to establish the military’s hegemony on the country.

He said while the military leadership wanted to turn parliament into a rubber stamp, “we are striving for its supremacy.” He added that it was a war for the country’s survival. In 1971, he said, a general, in an effort to bulldoze an LFO, had dismembered Pakistan and Gen Musharraf was toeing the same line.

However, the Maulana said Gen Musharraf was not powerful enough to block the way of democratic process as the entire nation was ready to wage a struggle against his “dictatorial designs.”

MMA’s vice-president Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the people of Pakistan would no more allow one man’s rule.

Senior NWFP minister Sirajul Haq said: “We have done no crime by enforcing Shariat in the NWFP.”

The convention was also telephonically addressed by renowned Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yasin who asked the Ummah to get united against the anti-Islam forces and liberate “Qibla-i-Awal” through jihad.

He said jihad was the only way for the Muslims to sustain their independence — this was their way of life.

In the morning session, a representative of Turkey’s former prime minister Najmuddin Erbekan and vice-president of Saadat party Tamil Karmula Oghlo proposed formation of an Islamic bloc and an international Islamic market to defend its interests the world over.