October 18, 2003	Saturday	Sha'aban 21, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The combined opposition in the National Assembly on Friday demanded that returns of assets of all the serving and retired generals/senior army officers along with the members of parliament be made public within a week’s time.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA)’s secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman, ARD president and parliamentary leader Javed Hashmi and PPP Parliamentarian’s secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf said: “To set a good example, the assets’ returns just submitted by the members of parliament should be made public and the army generals should also be included in the list.”

Speaking at a joint news conference of combined opposition after staging a walkout from the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rahman said the members of army generals should take cue from Gen Musharraf who had taken credit of submitting his assets returns when he assumed the office of the chief executive.

He strongly condemned what he termed the “dominance of FBI” in the local administration under which he said military operations were going on in the tribal areas and, as a result, women and children were living a life of despair and insecurity there.

Similarly, he said the Frontier Constabulary in the Chaghai district had, by its coercive actions, forced the local people to go on a two-day strike as no FIR was registered against those responsible for committing excesses. An MMA delegation will visit the area and express its solidarity with the victims of unlawful actions, he added.

He said efforts were being made to change the Islamic character of the 1973 Constitution by altering its Islamic articles, particularly the objective resolution and the Hudood Ordinance but the nation would not let the rulers make such changes.

PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf said the struggle for safeguarding parliament’s sovereignty was the voice of the people at large who had come to understand that the right of amending Constitution could not be exercised by an individual.