01 February 2004	Sunday	09 Zilhaj 1424

PESHAWAR, Jan 31: The Awami National Party has described the creation of National Security Council as detrimental to the sovereignty of parliament.

Speaking at a public meeting held in connection with the anniversary of Pukhtun nationalist leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan here on Friday, ANP leaders accused the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal of helping President Pervez Musharraf to materialise his moves to undermine the supremacy of the elected institutions.

Party's senior vice-president Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour took exception to what he said the MMA role in making possible for President Musharraf to make the Legal Framework Order (LFO) part of the Constitution.

And now the religious coalition was bent upon to help him impose the National Security Council.

"In the presence of parliament, the move to set up a National Security Council would be a joke with the country and its people," said Haji Bilour while addressing the meeting arranged by the Peshawar district chapter of the party.

Frontier ANP chief Begum Nasim Wali also spoke at the meeting and criticized the provincial government's policies and MMA's cooperation with the PML-Q.

She said that after remaining in the provincial government for one year, the MMA had failed to fulfil the promises it had made with the people during its election campaign.

Neither it could introduce Shariat in the province nor could it fulfil other promises made with its supporters during electioneering.

Highlighting the political acumen of late Ghaffar Khan, her father-in-law, she said the founder of the Red Shirt Movement had been saying time and again that solution to the Afghan crisis lay in holding a loya jirga (grand assembly of notables and tribesmen).

And time had proven his opinion true, she added.