LAHORE, Dec 29: The MMA will hold protest demonstrations at all the tehsil and district headquarters in the country and on busy highways on Jan 1 against Gen Musharraf for backing out of his promise of taking his uniform off by Dec 31.

Alliance's Deputy Secretary General Liaquat Baloch told a press conference here on Wednesday that the MMA activists would wear armbands and hoist black flags on their houses and automobiles to express their anger against the army ruler.

He said the next phase of the protest drive against Musharraf would be announced on Jan 1, as a committee was chalking out schedule for it. Launching a mass-contact caravan and holding demonstrations by women in Islamabad and at all provincial capitals were also under consideration, he added.

He said lawyers and religious scholars' conventions and direct contact of the alliance's central leaders with editors, columnists and senior journalists were also being planned. Answering a question, he said the deviation by Gen Musharraf from his promise had damaged the army's credibility.

He told another questioner that leaders of the MMA and the ARD would meet in Islamabad on Thursday (today) to discuss joint struggle against the "army dictatorship." He said jointly requisitioning the parliament session would be another item on the meeting's agenda.

He said the army ruler was avoiding to address the joint session of parliament at the start of the new parliamentary year as required under the basic law. "He doesn't have the courage to do so because of his recent prank with the constitution."

Replying to a query, he said the MMA was trying to create a consensus on a "national charter" among all democratic forces that neither Musharraf nor any other general would be acceptable in politics.

Mr Baloch demanded release of PML-N's Javed Hashmi, PPP's Yousaf Raza Gillani, Mujahideen, nuclear scientists and army officers currently under detention. Information secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi and MNAs Hafiz Salman Butt and Farid Piracha were also present.