ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: The combined opposition on Monday condemned President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to the United States and his impending address to the UN General Assembly, terming it as contrary to internationally acknowledged parliamentary norms.

The ARD said its MPs would stage a token hunger strike outside the parliament house on Tuesday morning to protest against the president’s address to the UN General Assembly scheduled for Wednesday.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal supported the ARD decision and said a decision on joining the hunger strike would be taken at its parliamentary meeting in the morning.

Speaking at separate news conferences, the opposition leaders condemned the president’s trip immediately before Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali’s visit to the United States later this month.

PML-N parliamentary leader Javed Hashmi said President Musharraf had no mandate from the nation as he was not an elected president to represent the country at the General Assembly and added that the ARD had decided to stage a hunger strike to expose this anomaly to the UN and the world community.

Mr Hashmi said the nation would never allow sending of Pakistani troops to Iraq even if the matter was debated in parliament, as such a step would be against an Islamic country.

MMA deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch shared the ARD’s sentiments about Gen Musharraf’s US visit and said the job should have been left to Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali.

Referring to the constitutional package delivered to MMA chief Allama Shah Ahmed Noorani on Friday, he said it would be discussed threadbare at the MMA supreme council meeting on Tuesday evening.

He said the MMA had not changed its stand on the LFO and would not accept anything less then a date for president to shed his uniform.

Secretary-general of the People’s Party Parliamentarians Raja Parvez Ashraf said Gen Musharraf had no right to address the UN General Assembly after failing to address a mandatory joint session of parliament at home.

He said the government had embarked upon dividing political parties after failing to win over the MMA, but warned that such an exercise would be detrimental to the entire democratic system.

He said the entire nation was behind the combined opposition in its struggle for the supremacy of parliament and sanctity of the Constitution.

MMA’s deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said the officially delivered draft package was in total contrast to what was prepared by the government-MMA teams in Lahore and which was announced by ruling party Senator S.M. Zafar.

Later, speaking after an opposition walkout from the Senate, PPP parliamentary leader Senator Raza Rabbani condemned what he called unparliamentary language used by the treasury members in the upper house on Monday.

He criticized deputy chairman Khalilur Rehman for not giving MMA’s Prof Khurshid Ahmed the floor and instead allowing a treasury member to speak against the opposition.

PML-N parliamentary leader in the Senate, Ishaq Dar, demanded of the government to reject the $3 billion package offered by the United States with a number of “unacceptable strings,” and demand $9 billion that he said was the actual loss suffered by Pakistan after joining the war against terrorism.