October 17, 2003	Friday	Sha'aban 20, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: The supreme council of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has decided to give a ‘positive’ response to Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s overtures on the LFO question and also to press ahead with its mass contact programme.

The supreme council, which met on Thursday with its president Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani in the chair, decided to appoint a two-member team comprising Liaqat Baloch and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed to meet the prime minister and discuss with him the government’s response to the three queries the alliance had posed to Mr Jamali before he left for the United States last month.

The prime minister had sent his two emissaries Rana Nazir and Yahya Munawar on Monday and Tuesday, asking the MMA to hold a meeting with him to discuss issues which they had raised.

The MMA however expressed its deep dismay over the government’s act of delaying its response to the set of counter proposals submitted by the alliance for the finalization of the proposed draft amendment bill.

It said the masses were extremely angry with these delaying tactics, and were ready to launch a movement against the government.

The MMA also discussed giving the government a deadline for bringing the constitutional amendments bill to parliament.

A definite programme and deadline will be announced at a news conference on Tuesday to be addressed by the central leadership, Liaqat Baloch said.

Those who attended the meeting were Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Allama Sajid Naqvi, Liaqat Baloch, Hafiz Hussian Ahmed, Pir Ijaz Ahmed Hashmi, Maulana Yusuf Shah, Maulana Abdul Aziz Hanif and Maulana Abdul Jalil Naqvi.

The religious alliance was successful in persuading the JUI-S to shun the aggressive posture against the MMA government and asked Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Yusuf Shah to visit the NWFP and try to address the grievances of the party.

Mr Baloch told reporters that the Majlis took serious notice of what he described as “illegal ban” imposed by political agent of South Waziristan agency on the entry of the visiting MMA parliamentary mission, and decided to hold big public rallies in Fata against the government’s military operation.

The MMA will hold a parliamentary party meeting along with other opposition parties and members from Fata in the parliament house on Tuesday to discuss and decide a strategy against the unlawful actions in Fata.

The MMA also condemned the gruesome murder of MNA Azam Tariq and termed it a conspiracy of dividing the people through sectarian disharmony and held the government fully responsible for it.

The MMA decided that it will do its utmost to “disengage the faithfuls’ involvement” in any type of sectarian fighting and try to reconcile if there arose any differences among them.

Similarly, while condemning what was termed “coercive actions” of the Frontier Constabulary in the Chaghai area of Balochistan, the MMA expressed its apprehension that a Fata-like operation in Balochistan might be launched.

It asked Hafiz Hussain Ahmed to pay a visit to the area along with other opposition MPs to express solidarity with the local people.

The MMA also opposed the “forces trying to get the Hudood ordinance annulled”.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman was assigned the task to contact other political parties and convince them against the efforts at altering the law which the alliance said “had been framed in accordance with the injunctions of Quran and Sunnah.”

A resolution passed by the MMA supreme council expressed solidarity with the people of Iran and condemned the conspiracy of American-Israeli plan of attacking it.

Through another resolution the MMA said no Pakistani troops would be allowed to be sent to Iraq.