ISLAMABAD, Sept 4: Leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on Monday termed the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) support to the women protection bill “regrettable” and “ill-timed,” saying that it would strengthen Gen Musharraf’s position during his visit to the United States.

Speaking at a news conference at the Parliament House cafeteria after staging a walkout from the National Assembly against the presentation of the Select Committee’s report on the bill seeking changes in Hudood laws, the MMA members said that they respected the right of the PPP members to follow their manifesto and ideology, but the party had chosen a wrong time to use this right.

“The PPP’s decision to support a bill, introduced by a military dictator, could be harmful for the whole opposition,” said MMA MNA Liaqat Baloch. He, however, said the opposition parties were united and they would continue their struggle to end the role of army in politics and to restore the constitution to the position of October 12, 1999, when Gen Musharraf took over the control after dismissing the democratically-elected government of Nawaz Sharif.

Mr Baloch said Gen Musharraf had been illegally occupying both the offices of the president and the army chief as he had deceived the whole nation by not separating the two offices on December 31, 2004, as announced by him in his televised address to the nation after reaching an agreement with the MMA on the controversial Legal Framework Order.

The MMA leader claimed that through the proposed bill, the government was changing 12 clauses of Hudood laws, out of total 22, while amendments were being made in six others to make them ineffective. Under the new law, he said, a rape victim woman would not be able to even register a case. He said the bill was being introduced in violation of the constitution which stated that no law could be introduced in the country which was against the teachings of Islam and Quran.

The MMA, he said, would continue its protest against the bill to change Hudood laws inside and outside the parliament with full force. He said the women protection bill was actually a cancellation of Hudood laws and it would not provide any protection to women. He said through the bill, Pakistan was being westernised. He said Gen Musharraf was targeting the Islamic ideology, the two-nation theory and the sovereignty of Quranic laws in the name of so-called enlightened moderation only to please the US. He said Gen Musharraf wanted to get this bill approved from the parliament before his visit to Afghanistan and the US.

Mr Baloch said the MMA had rejected the bill when it was introduced in the National Assembly on August 21 and today they were rejecting the report of the Select Committee. He said the list of the crimes, being committed by the military rulers, had become very long with the introduction of this bill.

Mr Baloch said the government had changed the agenda of the National Assembly session and there was no mention of the women protection bill in the orders of the day, provided to the members at their houses on Sunday evening and placed on their tables on Monday. He criticized the speaker for allowing the presentation of the report of the Select Committee through a supplementary orders of the day.

Prominent among those present in the press conference were Samia Raheel Qazi, Dr Farida Ahmed, Mohammad Laeeq Khan, Shah Abdul Aziz, Farid Ahmed Piracha, Jamila Ahmed, Razia Aziz, Ayesha Munawar and Ambreen Naeem.