LAHORE, Sept 13: Jamaat-i-Islami amir Qazi Husain Ahmad said on Saturday the government and the MMA had reached an understanding during talks that Gen Pervez Musharraf would shed his uniform by October 2004.

The relevant clause of the constitution that bars holding of two offices at a time will be made effective by that time to solve the uniform issue, he told district office-bearers of the Jamaat at a training session at Mansoora.

If the government excluded this pledge from the proposed constitutional package, the alliance would not accept it and launch a vigorous protest movement, he warned.

Talks on the LFO, he claimed, had been completed and both the parties had reached an agreement.

“In the party heads’ meeting on Sept 16, we shall see what constitutional bill the government prepares before extending our support for it in the (National) Assembly.”

Answering a question about not inviting some of the opposition parties to the meeting, he said, the alliance had been trying its best to invite all the parties for the talks, and it would again ask the government to ensure that. He said the government would also be requested to reveal agenda of talks to the opposition.

Replying to another question, he said the government could not dare send troops to Iraq because the whole nation was against it.