LAHORE, Sept 8: Mutthida Majlis-i-Amal Deputy Secretary-General and MNA Liaquat Baloch has said that the opposition parties have agreed to form a grand alliance to struggle for end to military dictatorship and use the option of resignation from the assemblies collectively.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said that the agreement had been reached at a meeting of the MMA, ARD and other opposition parties at the residence of Chaudhry Nisar Ali in Rawalpindi recently. ARD leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim had left for Dubai for getting the approval of the decisions from Benzir Bhutto.

He said that the opposition parties were of the view that Gen Pervez Musharraf had put the national security at stake by his policies. Military operation in Waziristan had failed and resulted in heavy casualties of armed forces besides generating hatred against Pakistan in tribal areas.

He said that the opposition would stage a demonstration in front of the Punjab Assembly after the national assembly session and condemn the Balochistan policy of the government. The leaders of the ARD, the MMA and other political parties would participate in the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) public meeting at the Minar-i-Pakistan on Sunday. The opposition parties would also organise a public meeting at Quetta on Sept 17 to condemn the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti and expressed solidarity with the people of Balochistan in their struggle for their rights.

He said that the MMA would also exercise the option of resignations from the assemblies in the event of amendment to the Hudood ordinance. It would also get the NWFP dissolved and quit government in Balochistan later on.

He said that the MMA was opposing the amendments to Hudood ordinance because these were against the Quranic injunctions and were aimed at making the law ineffective. As many as 50 MNAs of the government and 20 MNAs of the PPP had also expressed their reservations over the amendments proposed in the Hudood laws.

He also demanded reconstitution of the Council of Islamic Ideology by nominating representatives of all the sects on it.