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| 07 March 2004 | Sunday | 15 Muharram 1425 |
No cooperation between ARD and MMA: Farhat
ISLAMABAD, March 6: Pakistan People's Party spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar has said a new principle has been laid down in the country's political history under which the Constitution is re-written in the GHQ and not in the parliament.
Mr Babar was commenting with reference to reports in a section of the press that the ARD and the MMA had agreed to cooperate. This is not correct, he said.
"The secretary-general of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Fazlur Rehman, accompanied by Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, called on ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim at the latter's residence in Islamabad on Friday to discuss the political situation.
"In the meeting the MMA leaders did talk about what they thought was needed for resuming mutual cooperation between the MMA and the ARD.
"However, the ARD chairman apprised them of the serious reservation of the democratic opposition to the proposed cooperation with the MMA.
"The MMA has done incalculable damage to the body politic by ditching the democratic struggle half way for its own political ends and abandoning the democratic opposition of the ARD midway.
"The democratic people were not prepared to trust the MMA again for mutual cooperation.
"Unfortunately it was the MMA which, after proclaiming and protesting with the ARD for full one year that the new constitution will not be accepted without parliamentary approval, suddenly abandoned the joint struggle and endorsed the general's self assured claim to re-write the Constitution according to his whims.
"It also endorsed as head of state and showed a serving general a novel and unconstitutional way of foisting himself as president through the unheard of mechanism of vote of confidence in an open ballot of federal and provincial legislatures. Its members kept sitting in the Frontier Assembly to provide quorum for the vote of confidence even as they did not take part in voting to show to the public that they did not endorse Musharraf presidency.
"By doing what it did, the MMA established itself what many suspected it was, namely a part of the government of Gen Musharraf.
"The democratic opposition, therefore, has serious reservations about resuming political cooperation with the MMA".
Our Staff Reporter adds: PPP parliamentarians on Saturday condemned the killing of Abdullah Murad, a PPP MPA from Sindh, and sought immediate resignation of both the federal as well as the provincial governments.
"The series of incidents in the last few days in different parts of the country are enough to conclude that both federal as well as the provincial governments have utterly failed to establish their writ in the country," said PPP Parliamentary leader in Senate Raza Rabbani here at the party's media centre.
He told the reporters that Abdullah Murad, member Sindh Assembly from Malir District, was among those who were in the forefront in showing concern over the recent killing of two girls allegedly by police in Karachi, and demanded early arrest of the culprits.
Flanked by MNA Navid Qamar, senators Mohammad Enver Baig, Akbar Khawaja and Latif Ansari, Mr Rabbani vowed to raise the issue in the Senate and the National Assembly. He said they would also move motions to initiate debate on law and order situation in the country.
Mr Rabbani also brushed aside the impression of an understanding between Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in the Senate.
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