11 November 2004	Thursday	27 Ramazan 1425

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LAHORE, Nov 10: Repeal of the 17th amendment will be the main target of the movement the ARD and the MMA plan to launch after Eidul Fitr, ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim says.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with dissident PML leaders Begum Abida Husain and Syed Fakhr Imam at their residence, he said the religious alliance had realized that the controversial amendment was the root cause of all problems.

Provincial ARD president Qasim Zia was also present at the meeting, aimed at bringing the couple into the PPP.

Begum Abida also expressed satisfaction over the talks, held after her meetings with Ms Benazir Bhutto in Washington, London and Dubai.

Mr Fahim said a grand alliance of opposition parties was likely to come into being after Eid.

He said he would hold talks with MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman to discuss future cooperation.

He insisted that ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi was the opposition's nominee for the office of the army chief. If Gen Musharraf could aggrandise himself as president, an office which could go only to somebody meeting all the qualifications of an MNA, Mr Hashmi being an MNA qualified to become the army chief, he argued.

When a reporter suggested that before expecting Mr Hashmi to "take over" his new assignment the ARD would first have to get him released from prison, Mr Fahim said the incarcerated leader would discharge his duties from his cell.

Mr Hashmi was sentenced to 23 years in prison on sedition charges.

About the outcome of his meeting with Begum Abida and her spouse, the ARD chief said the alliance valued the couple and their political background. "Our talks have been very positive. Our thinking about national issues is identical. I am returning wiser," he said.

Begum Abida said the entire nation wanted the supremacy of the constitution and parliament, and added that achievement of this goal was the major subject of discussions at the meeting.

She said making the constitution subservient to whims of an individual would not be in the national interest.

About the possibility of her joining the PPP, she said: "Talks on the subject are going on."

She said all those in favour of supremacy of the constitution should move together and play their roles. She said she too was prepared to do her bit.

Begum Abida said parliament had been reduced to what she called a rubber stamp and it was no longer an instrument of conveying people's thoughts.

Parliament, she said, could get back its status if it discussed matters of national importance, giving due weightage to the opinion of opposition. Unless that happened, it would be a dead instrument, she said of the bicameral legislature.

She also pointed out that if the present parliament failed to come up to people's expectations, the electorate would pin their hopes on the next house to be elected as a result of fresh elections. "We support the demands of the opposition in parliament."