LAHORE, Sept 17: Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad says differences among the opposition parties on the women’s protection bill may result in a setback to the popular drive against the military dictatorship.

Talking to media people during a break in the JI’s working council meeting at Mansoora on Sunday, he said that Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain had called on him the other day to discuss the bill.

Mr Qazi said that he had told the PML leaders that the country needed an end to evil practices like women’s marriage to Quran and Vani, which had not been dealt with in the proposed bill.

He said that the real problem being faced by the country was the military dictatorship and added: “The system cannot be changed without getting rid of the rule of the generals.”

He said that only a handful westernized women on the payroll of foreign NGOs were protesting against the Hudood laws. “They have no concern with the plight of Pakistani women facing hardships due to the feudal system. The honour of women can be protected only by cementing the family system the western societies sought to disintegrate.

Answering a question on Balochistan, he said that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leadership had told the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam that it was high time to quit the Balochistan Assembly.

“If Gen Pervez Musharraf tries to use parliament as electoral college for his re-election, the MMA would quit the assemblies with other opposition parties. “We have taken lead in this regard and shall be ahead of other parties when the opposition decides to tender resignations”.

He said that General Musharraf would quit the presidency only after large-scale mass movement. However, he added, the movement could receive a setback due to support of any opposition party to the government on the issue of Hudood laws.