ISLAMABAD, April 12: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on Wednesday condemned the suicide bombing in Karachi, blaming the security lapse on the Sindh government besides calling for sacking of provincial governor and the home minister.
The alliance’s supreme council, which met here at the residence of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, termed the tragedy a conspiracy against the Ummah and announced to observe a country-wide ‘black day’ on Friday (April 12).
The six-party alliance also urged Gen Musharraf to quit from the posts of president and the chief of army staff and hand over power to a neutral and broad-based interim government and hold fresh elections through an autonomous election commission.
The MMA also called for the appointment of its nominee as new opposition leader in the Senate, claiming the support of 22 senators, including Prof Sajid Mir, bringing down the number of senators supporting the ARD to 20.
Meanwhile, Prof Sajid Mir at a news conference said he had not signed the ARD’s Senate list, hinting at his support to the MMA.
Qazi Hussain termed the proposed move to elect General Musharraf elected by present parliament unconstitutional and illegal.
Referring to the 17th Amendment, paving the way for Gen Musharraf to hold both offices, the MMA chief said it had been rendered meaningless after President Musharraf did not honour his commitment to leave the office of the COAS before Dec 31, 2004.
He said that all opposition parties had agreed to work together on a three-point agenda — removal of Gen Musharraf from both offices, setting up of an independent and autonomous election commission and holding of elections under a neutral interim government.
Earlier, briefing newsmen at the end of meeting, MMA’s secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman said that the alliance had proved its competence by running the NWFP government as good as any other party.
Without formally nominating a candidate, he called for the appointment of the MMA candidate for the post of the opposition leader in Senate, adding that now it was the second largest parliamentary group in the upper house.
Responding about the fear of a clash with the ARD on the nomination of the opposition leader, Maulana Fazl said there was nothing wrong in making a genuine demand as both the alliances were working together despite numerous policy differences.
The MMA meeting discussed the situation in tribal areas with particular reference to the Waziristan Agency and called for an immediate halt to the military operation so that a grand jirga could be held to settle the dispute.
It also called for suspension of the army action in Balochistan besides calling for debating the parliamentary committee’s recommendations in parliament and resolution of the dispute through political means.
The meeting expressed its concern over what they termed unilateral confidence-building measures that Islamabad had taken and said that the steps gave a false impression that they would help resolve the Kashmir issue while the issue was gradually being complicated.
