24 April 2005	Sunday	14 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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SUKKUR, April 23: The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has said that President Gen Pervez Musharraf has turned the entire army into an opponent of the political parties which could be disastrous for the country. Talking to newsmen at Sukkur airport on the first leg of his three-day visit to Sukkur and Larkana divisions here on Saturday, he said that the president did not fulfil his promise to shed the uniform and now he was asking the people to support the PPP and go against the MMA. He said the president’s attitude was objectionable.

Terming the incident of Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, a failure of our foreign policy, he said the Maulana Sami-ul-Haq was the vice president of the MMA and his inclusion in the official delegation was not objectionable.

Commenting over the recent crisis in the ARD and differences between the PPP and PML-N, he said that he did not want to comment on the issue, as he did not want to spoil the political atmosphere.

He said that: “We want a joint opposition stand against President Musharraf and do not desire ARD’s division”.

He, however, said that the PPP should clarify its stand as till now it was being felt that the PPP was supporting President Musharraf on all the issues.

Evading a question about Zardari’s criticism of the MMA, the Maulana said that due to the US terrorism and policies and international scenario, some political parties were divided. Some of them were talking about enlightened moderation and we count the PPP as allies of such forces, he added.

He said that the next meeting of the MMA supreme council would be held on April 30 in which a strategy would be chalked out regarding President Musharraf’s holding of the two offices.

DUST STORM: Dust storm hit Sukkur, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Khairpur and other parts of the interior Sindh on Saturday evening, uprooting several trees and sign boards besides blowing away roof tops of many kutcha houses.

The dust storm started at about 6.00pm and continued with a low intensity till the filing of the report.