19 September 2004	Sunday	03 Shaban 1425

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HYDERABAD, Sept 18: Deputy parliamentary leader of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in National Assembly Hafiz Hussain Ahmed has warned the government of serious consequences if the MMA gives a protest call to the tribal people in Waziristan.

Speaking at the Ishq-i-Rasoolullah Conference at Nasim Nagar Chowk here on Friday night, he said that the army operation in Balochistan, coupled with the Waziristan operation, would be tantamount to suicide.

He urged the government to exercise restraint and not to take situation in South Waziristan to such a point where tribal people reacted to the operation, adding that in such case, the tribal area would become another Iraq.

He said that on the one hand, the government claimed to try to find a political solution of the problem and, on the other, it did not allow politicians to visit Waziristan.

Mr Ahmed asked as to why economic sanctions had been imposed on the people of Waziristan since May if the operation was against terrorists.

He said that the tribal area would become another Iraq if the MMA incited tribal people but it did not want to pit people against army.

The MMA leader called upon President Gen Pervez Musharraf to honour his promise of shedding army uniform by December 31 and said that the MMA was resisting the government on the issue.

He said that through the 17th amendment, the MMA had provided an honourable exit to army but it was insisting on five years' more stay in power.

He said that the MMA would devise its strategy on the issue in its supreme council meeting on September 25 because the statements of the president and ministers indicated that he was not going to shed his uniform.

He warned that the resident would be responsible for consequences if he did not fulfil constitutional requirements and added that the institution of army should remain uncontroversial.

He said that Gen Musharraf must leave the post of the president if he deemed it necessary to remain in uniform and added that if he tried to keep both the offices, he would stand disqualified for both.

About People's Party Parliamentarians policy on the uniform issue, he said that the statements of President Musharraf and Makhdoom Amin Fahim were identical in nature on the issue.

Answering a question, he opposed the army operation in Balochistan and said that it, coupled with the Waziristan operation, would lead to disastrous consequences.

Cantonments should be set up wherever they were required but the presidency should not be converted into a cantonment, he argued and added in the same breath that hospitals and educational institutions, not cantonments, should be established in Balochistan.

He said that the land of the Baloch people was being given to outsiders and asserted that nobody was against development.

He criticized raids on his madressah and house in Quetta while he was visiting India with a parliamentarians' delegation and added that Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid had tried to associate him with Al-Qaeda by claiming arrest of an foreigner, Sharif Misri, from his madressah.

Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, Abdul Karim Abid, Maulana Taj Mohammad Nahyoon and others also spoke at the conference.