27 June 2004	Sunday	08 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

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LAHORE, June 26: The MMA has started consultations to frame its policy in the emerging situation after resignation by Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as the prime minister.

Religious alliance's acting president Qazi Hussain Ahmad is discussing the issue with opposition leader and MMA Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who had been banished from Karachi after the Sindh government banned his entry in the province.

Sources said a formal meeting of the alliance was likely on Sunday evening on Monday morning to decide about MMA's policy towards 'interim' prime minister (designate) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

"The alliance was supporting Mr Jamali for he was a gentleman and used to have cordial relations with opposition too," MMA Information Secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi said.

When contacted before reports that Chaudhry Shujaat would be the prime minister only for an interim period, Qazi Hussain Ahmad said he was at loss to understand why the PML had changed its leader in the National Assembly. He also questioned the nomination of Shaukat Aziz as the senior minister.

JUP Vice-President Gen K.M. Azhar and Pir Ijaz Hashmi, in a joint statement, condemned what they said forced resignation of Mr Jamali and termed it a humiliation for democracy.

They said that Gen Musharraf had taken hostage the whole country and its institutions and regretted that the rulers were busy in power politics while law and order situation in the country was deteriorating and the recent example of it was the murder of PML-N leader Binyameen Rizvi in broad daylight on a busy road in Lahore.

They said only leaders of the MMA, the PPP and the PML-N were being targeted by so-called terrorists who were sparing the ruling coalition members.