29 August 2004	Sunday	12 Rajab 1425

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LAHORE, Aug 28: Parliamentary democracy faces a serious threat after the induction of Shaukat Aziz into the government as prime minister, a central MMA leader said here on Saturday.

"Mr Aziz is a technocrat more loyal to President Musharraf than the system, and the way has now been paved for a presidential system," deputy secretary-general Hafiz Husain Ahmed said at a news conference.

He said such a change would deepen what he called the sense of deprivation among smaller provinces and the possibility of separatist tendencies picking up momentum could not be ruled out.

Hafiz Husain, who is also a member of the National Assembly and a central figure of the JUI-F, said the MMA and the ARD had moved closer to each other following Friday's boycott of prime minister's election by the two alliances. Now, he hoped, new political alignments would take shape in the coming weeks.

In a highly sarcastic tone, he 'thanked' the National Assembly speaker whose "humble and obedient" ruling that Javed Hashmi could not be produced in the house at the time of voting, made the two alliances shun their differences.

Referring to the appointment of a third prime minister since the Oct 2002 elections, the MMA leader said it indicated President Musharraf's failure to take the right political decisions. He said Gen Musharraf did not trust politicians and army men because of which he was also not trusted by both the institutions.

Famous for his off-the-cuff witty remarks, Hafiz Husain said Article Six provided capital punishment for those subverting the country's basic law, but regretted that so far no rules had been framed to put the accused on trial. He proposed that the parliament should enact legislation to implement Article Six as and when required.

The MMA leader said his alliance had no objection to the candidature of Makhdoom Amin Fahim but it was the PML-N which was not accepting him. The religious alliance, he recalled, had declared that it would take any decision on the subject after the ARD.

In response to a question, Hafiz Husain said the MMA was not asking Gen Musharraf to take off his uniform. Instead, he said, the alliance was reminding him that under the 17th constitutional amendment he could not have two offices at the same time. The requirements of the amendment would stand fulfilled as the general put off one of the two hats, he said.

According to him, before talks on the 17th amendment, the MMA had received a message from the army that the issue of uniform should be delayed for a year till Dec 2004 as some generals were scheduled to retire in October.

Hafiz Husain said Gen Musharraf would be violating the constitution if he retained both the offices even after Dec 31.

About former interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat's allegation that the MMA had links with the Al-Qaeda, he said this showed how confused the minister was. He pointed out that the allegation had never been made on the floor of the house. Had the minister done so, the MMA would have come up with an appropriate response.

Elected from Balochistan, the MMA leader strongly opposed the ongoing operation in his province, saying the matter could be resolved through dialogue. He said Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, too, was averse to the operation and this was also one of the reasons for his ouster. But, he believed, Mr Jamali would never ever would admit this.