HYDERABAD, Dec 4: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has said time is running out for the government to table the constitutional amendment package on the floor of the National Assembly as the one-month deadline expires on Dec 17.

Speaking at a press conference at the residence of local Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan leader Malik Yaseen in Phuleli here on Thursday, MMA president Allama Shah Ahmad Noorani said his party would launch a country-wide “Musharraf Hatao, Mulk Bachao Movement” if the agreed constitutional bill was not brought before the house by Dec 17.

He said he had summoned a meeting of MMA leaders for Dec 9 in Islamabad which would consider recommendations of the party’s 11-member steering committee and make a strategy to launch the movement.

He said the MMA had held negotiations with the government for 10 months on the Legal Framework Order but the government had failed to present the agreed package in parliament.

Mr Noorani said the MMA-government negotiating team had approved the constitutional bill and it had been duly announced by S. M. Zafar. He said a copy of the approved bill was also delivered to him personally by Pakistan Muslim League-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in Islamabad.

He, however, said there were two points in the package which needed clarification.

He said the MMA had held negotiations with the government to restore complete democracy, 1973 Constitution and the supremacy of parliament.

The MMA leader said his party had demonstrated flexibility by accepting Gen Pervez Musharraf as a de facto president and allowing him to wear uniform for one year.

He said the MMA would not accept the LFO as a part of the Constitution.

About the constitutional amendment bill, he said this too would have to be approved by parliament in accordance with the Constitution.

He did not agree with a questioner that MMA parliamentarians had taken the oath under the LFO.

He said it was on the record that the presiding officer, former NA speaker, had announced on the floor of the assembly that the oath was being administered under the 1973 Constitution.

Answering another question about accusations of an Alliance for Restoration of Democracy leader that the MMA stood for “Mullah-military alliance”, Mr Noorani said it was the MMA that had been fighting against the LFO for the last one year.

He made it clear that the time for further negotiations was over.

Responding to a question as to who would be responsible if assemblies were dissolved, the MMA president said the same forces would be responsible which had always been responsible for dissolving the assemblies.