LARKANA, Dec 27: Senator Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, Secretary General of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Sindh, has accused the government of bulldozing the MMA proposals and accused the President, General Musharraf, and his cronies of blackmailing the people in the name of Women's rights protection act.

He said that government did not agree to MMA's proposals regarding women's property rights, sell of daughters, forced marriages, daughters given in compensations settlement of murders, divorces etc.

He stated this while addressing Hudood Allah rally held against the Women’s Rights Protection Act here on Wednesday.

Terming the Act against injunctions of Islam, he said it (the government) had unilaterally passed the Bill which is totally against the spirit of Islam and Shariah. The rulers, he said, were befooling the people adding that the act did not contain any element to protect the women's . Instead, it would give birth to an anti-Islamic society, and asked the workers to go and educate the people against such laws, framed by President General Musharraf.

He said under the act, sin within four walls is permitted, a mature girl could freely move and police had no right to stop commitment of zina, he claimed and added that MMA would strongly oppose such laws.

He appealed the ulema, scholars of all schools of thought to unite and reject the act. “We are proud to be fundamentalists and would contest against what he called 'progressives'. The MMA had decided to fight in and outside the parliament to force the government to withdraw the act, he said and appreciated MMA's decision against resignations “which would not give space to the president to act freely”.