KARACHI, Nov 24: The Supreme Council of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has asked the government to postpone the National Security Council meeting scheduled for Thursday and hold talks with it to remove its reservations about the NSC act.
The council decided its stand on the matter at its meeting held here on Wednesday with Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the chair. The decision was announced by MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman at a press conference.
Maulana Fazl said that the meeting discussed in detail offers made by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and NSC Secretary General Tariq Aziz for talks to remove MMA's reservations and decided to accept the offer provided the NSC meeting fixed for Thursday was postponed and talks initiated.
"We don't want to give an impression that we are not willing to attend the NSC under any circumstances," he said, adding that the offer for talks had been made at the last moment and, therefore, the MMA wanted its postponement to initiate dialogues.
In reply to a question, Maulana Fazl said that the MMA did not believe in adding to the political bitterness and was keen to solve all issues through dialogue. But as a goodwill gesture, the government must postpone Thursday's NSC meeting, he added.
The council decided to launch a protest campaign against the government if President Gen Pervez Musharraf did not relinquish the post of the chief of army staff by Dec 31.
The meeting decided to organise an all-party conference on Kashmir in December and to hold meeting of Ulema and Mashaikh. The council demanded that legislations by parliament be based on recommendations of the Islamic Ideology Council.
Eulogising the services of its former president, the late Allama Shah Ahmad Noorani, to the cause of Islam, democracy and the country, the MMA urged the government to name the Lyari Expressway after the Maulana.
Referring to MMA's scheduled public meetings in Karachi, Multan, Lahore and Rawalpindi on Nov 28, Dec 5, 12 and 19 he said that besides the issue of the president's uniform, the MMA would mobilize the public option against amendments made to the blasphemy law when the opposition was out of the assembly.
He warned the government against amending the Hudood laws and making changes in the education policy against the aspirations of the people of Pakistan.
