PESHAWAR, Aug 30: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad has hinted that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal may part ways with the Balochistan coalition government in view of the situation in the province.

Speaking at a press conference at Al Markaz-i-Islami on Wednesday, he said the MMA supreme council was scheduled to meet on Sept 5 to discuss all vital issues, including the Balochistan situation.

“The supreme council will take the final decision on whether to quit the coalition government in Balochistan,” the MMA president said in reply to a question about the alliance’s strategy in the wake of the killing of former Balochistan chief minister Nawab Akbar Bugti.

“The JI is part of the MMA and it can’t take a unilateral decision. We will take other partners of the alliance into confidence in this regard,” he said.

Qazi Hussain earlier presided over a meeting of the NWFP provincial shoora of his party.

He said he had briefed the shoora on the situation in the country and discussed the strategy for Friday’s strike.

He appealed to people to make the strike successful.

Terming President Pervez Musharraf a security risk, he said the government had put the country at stake.

“Dictatorship is the root cause of all the problems,” he remarked, demanding that Gen Musharraf and his team should resign and transfer power to an interim government. He demanded formation of an independent Election Commission to hold free and fair polls.

Condemning the military action in Balochistan and the killing of Nawab Bugti, he said the army had not been raised to kill its own people. “The army’s job is to secure the country from external threats not to slaughter its own people,” he observed. He said the killing of the 79-year-old Baloch leader had fuelled the situation.

The MMA leader said Gen Musharraf’s policies had demoralised army officers and soldiers and claimed that dozens of officers had refused to act against civilians during the Waziristan operation.