ISLAMABAD Nov 15: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Wednesday there was no reason for the MMA to resign from the assembly as the protection of women’s bill passed by the National Assembly was different from the draft approved by the select committee and proposals of a panel of ulema were incorporated into it to some extent.

Addressing a news conference at his chamber in parliament house after the passage of the bill, the premier said that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League believed in legislation strictly according to Quran and Sunnat as enshrined in article 227 of the constitution.

He said that the party, including himself, endorsed the offer made by PML president Chaudhry Shujaat that its members would resign from parliament if any clause of the bill was proved to be un-Islamic.

Twice evading a question whether the People’s Party Parliamentarians’ support for passing the bill would usher in its long-term political engagement with the government, he said: “It is beauty of democracy that the same party which supported us on women’s bill opposed another bill tabled in the house immediately after the passage of the first bill.”

The prime minister said that the amendment regarding fornication recommended by the select committee was brought about after consultations with the coalition parties.