ISLAMABAD, May 18: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on Friday proposed a bill to the National Assembly to seek cancellation of the 17th Constitution Amendment it had helped pass by parliament to legitimise sweeping powers assumed by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

An MMA statement said the bill, signed by 11 members of the religious parties and filed in the lower house secretariat, was necessitated because the basic purpose of the 17th Amendment to restore full democracy and to find a way out of the situation created by the takeover of power by an army chief had not been achieved.

The bill, which seeks another constitutional amendment, stands no chance of passage in the present parliament because of the required two-thirds majority needed each in the 342-seat National Assembly and the 100-seat Senate, where the ruling coalition has a comfortable majority.