ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has vowed to resist the presentation of the draft of the Women’s Protection bill finalised by the house select committee and reiterated the threat to quit from federal and provincial assemblies if the government tries to table the same draft.

The alliance’s deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said: “We know that (President) General Musharraf is committed to the policy given to him by the United States and he will resist interventions by sane elements in the PML led by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.”

If the government, he said, tried to change the Hudood laws, especially clauses concerning rape, the MMA would resign from assemblies.

The MMA believed that the bill would be presented in accordance with decisions taken at a meeting chaired by President Musharraf. It also assumed that the draft approved by the house select committee would be presented in the National Assembly because the PPP and the MQM were its members and both parties had opposed its redrafting in accordance with the ulema committee’s suggestions.

Meanwhile, a PML leader told this correspondent that the meeting held under the president had decided in principle to seek the support of the PPP and the MQM in getting the bill passed. He did not say anything about the government’s strategy if the MMA really did resign.