February 26, 2006	Sunday	Muharram 27, 1427

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LAHORE, Feb 25: MMA President Qazi Husain Ahmed believes the government wants to include some opposition legislators in a parliamentary delegation to Brussels more to thwart the movement against Gen Musharraf than take up the issue of blasphemous cartoons with the representatives of various European countries.

Talking to Dawn at his Mansoora office on Friday, he said politics and religion were inseparable and the opposition parties would work on both fronts concurrently. They would continue to protest against the cartoons, and at the same time ratchet up pressure on Gen Musharraf to step down as it was unconstitutional for an army chief to rule the country, he said.

An official served detention orders on Qazi Husain on Friday, but the latter refused to receive them. However, he did not come out of Mansoora.

“We are preserving all energies for Sunday (today) when the MMA would hold a rally on The Mall, a Jamaat-i-Islami leader said, explaining why the MMA chief had not come out of Mansoora.

Qazi claimed that it was because of opposition’s pressure that the government was talking against the cartoons. Had the opposition not taken the issue to the streets the propagators of ‘enlightened moderation’ would have brushed the matter under the carpet, saying it was an issue of freedom of expression, he said.

When it was pointed out that opposition’s refusal to become part of the parliamentary delegation would send an impression as if the nation was not united even on this sensitive issue of religious importance, the MMA president said the opposition had distanced itself from the official team to let the world know that they did not support Gen Musharraf. “We want to tell everyone that the government of Gen Musharraf is unconstitutional and we are not with him”.

In his opinion, the OIC was in a better position to deal with the cartoons issue and clear misperceptions about Islam.