ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has rejected the International Republican Institute’s survey which has declared President Pervez Musharraf as the most popular leader of the country and said if it was true then it was high time that the general leaves his army chief’s post and tests his popularity in the coming elections.

Talking to Dawn on Sunday, MMA leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said Gen Musharraf would face embarrassment whenever fair, free and transparent elections were held and he quit his army post.

He said American institutions were trying clear the path for President Musharraf to win the elections through such surveys.

He said the general could be sent home if the opposition took the issue seriously and fielded a unanimous candidate in the presidential election against him.

The MMA leader said the People’s Party Parliamentarians had made its intentions clear by siding with Gen Musharraf on the women’s protection bill, thereby burying the Charter of democracy before its implementation. He said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif should offer Fateha for the charter which had been signed by the two major opposition parties in London without taking the MMA into confidence.

Commenting on Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani’s statement that the opposition had accepted that any change could only come through elections, he said: “The minister should be reminded that the real power in any case will remain with the armed forces.”

He warned the military establishment that Pakistan was going to face a very difficult situation in wake of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces’ planned pullout from Afghanistan. He said an aggressive Afghan government supported by the enemies of Pakistan would become more hostile on its western borders. The armed forces, he said, were already facing a highly volatile situation despite huge deployment along the 2,200km-long porous border.

About the MMA he said: “Everything is in limbo as the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rahman is away from the country.”

He said he would not speak any more about the MMA policy in accordance with instructions from his party, which seems to be in process of taking action against him.

He said he would remain the deputy parliamentary leader and acting secretary-general of the MMA in the absence of Fazlur Rahman until the alliance’s supreme council took a decision about his position.