LAHORE, Sept 21: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal will not repose confidence in Gen Pervez Musharraf during his recourse to electoral college for validating his term as president even if it reaches agreement with the government.

Talking to Dawn on Sunday, MMA deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch said the government had accepted the MMA’s stance but sought an assurance that during the process the alliance would not at least vote against Gen Musharraf.

He pointed out that Gen Musharraf could get a majority vote even without the MMA support in the Balochistan Assembly while losing it in the NWFP Assembly would not hurt the overall result.

Answering a question, Mr Baloch said all clauses of the LFO had been discussed and there was no need to hold further talks. People, he added, were fed up with the lengthy talks process and wanted an early outcome of it.

He said the proposed constitutional agreement would be implemented in two phases. In the first part, the constitutional package would be presented before parliament and the MMA would vote for it to ensure its passage with two-thirds majority.

The second part, he said, would be Gen Musharraf’s recourse to electoral college in the form of resolutions of confidence in the Senate, the National Assembly and provincial assemblies. At that stage, he added, the MMA would not be bound to support the government.

Mr Baloch made it clear that the MMA would not vote even for the constitutional package if it did not contain a cut-off date for divesting his uniform — whether implicitly or explicitly — by Gen Musharraf.

Asked if the MMA leadership was ready to meet Gen Musharraf for convincing him in this regard, he said: “No...we are reluctant to meet the general for fear of worsening of the situation if he continued showing his stubbornness and disregard to the voice of the nation.”