SWABI, Sept 14: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s first and foremost priority is to end the deadlock over constitutional amendments by persuading the government to present the Legal Framework Order in the Parliament, says the alliance’s secretary- general Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The MMA leader was speaking at a public meeting here on Saturday night.

Maulana Fazl said that during the meeting between party heads and government representatives in Islamabad on Sept 16, all controversial issues — including Article 58(2b), National Security Council, president’s excessive powers, judges’ retirement age and presidential election — would be discussed to resolve the constitutional crisis.

Expressing the hope for a positive outcome of the meeting, Maulana Fazl said that the government should avoid opening up new fronts, adding that the people had waited long for the resolution of the constitutional crisis.

Stressing the need for finding an amicable settlement, he said that failure in this regard would have far reaching consequences for the democratic setup besides damaging the credibility of the government as well as that of the president.

“We (politicians) have made all out efforts to steer the country out of the ... constitutional deadlock (now) it is up to the government team as to how it will address our genuine demands”, he said.

He said that if insertion of constitutional amendments went unchallenged, it would lead to scrapping of Islamic clauses in the future, adding that the parliament had been suspended when the amendments were made but now the parliamentarians “have assumed their responsibility and they have the right to amend the constitution.”

The president, he said, had no option other than bringing the constitutional package to the parliament for a debate.

Criticizing President Pervez Musharraf for adopting what he termed wrong Afghan policy besides accusing him of embracing what he termed a policy of appeasement towards India, he said that these policies had led to accusations from both the Afghan president and the Indian prime minister to accuse Pakistan of being involved in cross-border terrorism.

The Afghan government, he said, had issued a new map in which Pakistan’s territories from Attock to Jacobabad had been shown as Afghanistan’s territories, adding that the government had remained silent, saying that it had done everything in the national interest.

Lashing out at the government for providing help to the US, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the fight against the US occupation would continue, adding that the emerging India-US- Israel nexus would have a far reaching consequences for the country’s security.

Provincial Education Minister Maulana Fazl Ali, general secretary of the JUI-F Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidari, Hafiz Akhtar Ali, Senator Gul Nasib Khan, MNA Maulana Shujaul Mulk and Maulana Khalil Ahmad had also attended the meeting.