LAHORE, Sept 12: MMA vice-president Qazi Husain Ahmed has alleged that a group of people around President Gen Pervez Musharraf is trying to sabotage the understanding between the government and the religious parties’ alliance.

Addressing the Friday congregation at Mansoora, he claimed the two sides had reached an understanding on the LFO and the only thing left was its translation into a constitutional package.

He said it had been agreed that the National Security Council would not be above parliament and president’s power to sack assemblies would be linked with the consent of the Supreme Court.

The MMA leader said the president’s power to appoint army chief had been made conditional and there was an agreement between the PML-Q and the MMA that as a matter of principle a general should not be the president of the country.

The two sides also agreed to set a date for separation of the two offices.

He said now that there was an understanding on all major issues, intriguers were issuing statements to sabotage the whole thing. Such people, he alleged, did not want the country governed by the Constitution.

The MMA, he said, had differences with Gen Musharraf on a number of issues. For example, he said, the general wanted to make Pakistan a secular state and change the system of education along with the curricula. The general, he said, was also silent on the atrocities being perpetrated on the people of Kashmir and Palestine. Then, he said, the general was in favour of sending troops to Iraq to please the United States.

Qazi said the MMA wanted to raise these issues in parliament and get government’s views changed.

He said the MMA would go by its conscience and follow a course of action that it thought was better for the nation.

According to the MMA leader, the religious parties victory was regarded a threat and various NGOs had asked the rulers to clip the wings of the NWFP government.

He said the army was being told that an arrangement should be made to forestall MMA’s return to power in the future.

He said it was strange that people wanting a system of justice were being branded as extremists.

He was critical of the US policies against the Islamic countries and the India-Israel alliance.