LAHORE, April 6: MMA president Qazi Husain Ahmad says the alliance activists will not resign from assemblies and rather use the forum to continue their fight for restoration of the 1973 Constitution.

Speaking at a reception held for the newly-elected leaders of Jamaat-i-Islami for various Lahore towns here on Thursday, he said the joint opposition had yet to take a decision whether to take part in the elections in the presence of a president-in-uniform.

He said the ARD leaders were being invited to finalise a mutual understanding on this issue.

He said the elections were not very far but the question was whether the opposition should take part in it or not, as the process could not be fair and transparent if Gen Musharraf remained calling the shots.

This time, he said, no room should be left for the ruling parties for manipulating election results. “It will be in the larger national interest if the whole opposition reached a consensus decision on contesting it.”

He said the MMA would formulate its strategy after consulting the ARD leaders.