03 January 2005	Monday	21 Ziqa'ad 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 2: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal is ready to negotiate with the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy to workout a plan for struggle for restoration of 1973 Constitution and to reopen debate on the 17th Amendment in order to launch a joint movement against President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Talking to Dawn by telephone on Sunday, MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed said: "We can negotiate on the formation of a joint constitution review committee which would thrash out all the contentious issues with regard to constitutional amendments."

He said such a committee was promised by the government during talks on the 17th Amendment. When referred to ARD's Sukkur meeting in which the alliance had decided to go along with MMA's anti-Musharraf campaign, following the latter's withdrawal of support from the 17th amendment, Qazi Hussain said: "We are open to discussion on all issues, including this amendment."

MMA's position about the 17th amendment, so far, has been that both the major opposition alliances had agreed on majority points of the Legal Framework Order, which became part of the 17th amendment, leaving only seven points on which the MMA had finally agreed with some minor changes to finally pass the amendment by the two-thirds majority of parliament.

Qazi Hussain said: "We can jointly review and strike down the contentious items from the 17th amendment when the country gets rid of the military-led government." He said those creating doubts about the ARD-MMA joint struggle were not serving any national objective.

The MMA chief said: "We have decided to negotiate with the ARD on all issues, including the 17th amendment, in order to remove all the misunderstandings on constitutional issues." He said: "We have a common cause and we will find a common ground to wage struggle together."