November 18, 2006	Saturday	Shawwal 25, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: Two more members of the National Assembly of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) announced on Friday that they were resigning from their seats to protest against the passage of the controversial Protection of Women’s Rights Bill, in what seemed to be a move to mount pressure on the alliance’s leaders to fulfil their promise to do the same.

Hanif Abbasi of the Jamaat-i-Islami announced quitting the National Assembly while speaking at a public meeting in Rawalpindi and Dr Farida Ahmed of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP) announced her decision at a press conference.

Deputy parliamentary leader of the MMA Hafiz Hussain Ahmed had announced his resignation from the lower house of parliament on Thursday even before the MMA’s Supreme Council meeting, in which the leaders decided to quit the assembly in the first week of December.

Mr Ahmed had stated that in a recent meeting of the supreme council, the MMA had decided that its legislators would resign if the bill was approved without addressing their concerns and without incorporating the recommendations of the ulema panel. Therefore, he said, he had submitted his resignation to MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed and secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman for submitting it to the speaker, and if they failed to do so he would do it himself.

Dr Farida, who is the president of the JUP Women Wing and sister of late MMA chief Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani, said that she had handed over her resignation to Qazi Hussain Ahmed for submitting it to the speaker.

Answering a question, she said that earlier only the JI MNAs had submitted their resignations to Qazi Hussain as his position of Jamaat’s chief and now the MNAs belonging to other component parties of the alliance had started submitting their resignations.

She termed the Women Protection Bill unIslamic, unconstitutional and immoral.

Dr Farida, an MNA on a reserved seat for women from Sindh (NA-315), announced that her party would mobilise women of the country against the bill and they would also move the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

She said that religious parties were ready to work for the removal of administrative shortcomings in the enforcement of Hudood laws, but they would not allow any one to change them.

Talking to Dawn, MNA from Rawalpindi (NA-56) Hanif Abbasi said that he had endorsed the decision of the MMA Supreme Council meeting while speaking at the public meeting at Fawwara Chowk in Rawalpindi.

He said that he would abide by the decision of the alliance leadership in this regard.

Now the total number of the MMA MNAs who had announced resignations from their National Assembly seats has come to four. However, JI MNA Haroonur Rashid, who had already handed over his resignation to the speaker during the last session, had quit the seat to protest against the Bajaur incident in which 83 students and teachers were killed during an airstrike on a seminary.

The MMA on Thursday had announced that it would implement its decision of resigning from the National Assembly in protest against the passage of the Protection of Women’s Rights Bill during a parliamentary party meeting on Dec 6 and 7. The MMA has 66 lawmakers in the 342-member lower house.