March 11, 2006	Saturday	Safar 10, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 10: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal President Qazi Hussain Ahmed said on Friday that present assemblies had become ineffective and better be sent home.

He called upon President Gen Pervez Musharraf to resign from both the offices and let the political parties run the country. “After (President) Musharraf’s going back on the uniform issue beyond Dec 31, 2004, 17th (constitutional) amendment has become meaningless and irrelevant.”

Qazi Hussain was talking to journalists at parliament house lobby as he arrived from Lahore after the Punjab government withdrew its one-month detention order against him.

He admitted that some unscrupulous MMA MPAs had sold their conscious and votes in the Senate election and said that they should be exposed and shunt out of political arena.

He announced an inquiry to find out the ‘culprits’ and said that references would be filed in courts against them to make them an example for others.

He said that ‘those of the official party’ who had purchased votes were bigger criminals and the alliance would consider filing references in the Supreme Court against them as well.

The MMA chief described non-production of PML (Nawaz) detained MNA Javed Hashmi in the National Assembly to vote in the Senate poll for Islamabad seat as murder of justice and fairness.

He said that the movement for the upholding the reverence for Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) would not stop and ‘workers’ would take it to its logical conclusion.

Answering a question about tension between troops and tribesmen in the Waziristan area bordering Afghanistan, he said ‘if the government asks, I will extend my services to reconcile the administration and the tribal leadership.’

Referring to the ongoing parleys between top opposition parties about launching a country-wide campaign against President Musharraf, the Qazi called upon the patriotic elements to forge unity against ‘military tyranny.’

All the political parties outside the coalition, he said, were unanimous in launching a campaign for restoration of constitution (as it was on Oct 12, 1999), sovereignty of parliament and prestige of federal system and they would ‘soon’ prepare an action plan against the government.

Asked to comment on ruling PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s insistence on holding 2007 elections under Gen Musharraf, the Qazi advised Mr Hussain to stop supporting a ‘military dictator’ and, instead, join hands with political forces lest he lost his party office.