LAHORE, Aug 29: Maulana Fazlur Rehman says the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) will neither vote for nor support Gen Pervez Musharraf in his re-election from the existing assemblies if he does not take off his uniform.

The Maulana said that MMA had adopted an unambiguous strategy on the presidential election and believed that elections should not create any crisis in the country.

According to a press release issued on Wednesday, which did not mention where was the Maulana talking to his party delegation, the MMA secretary-general said any attempt to force Gen Musharraf’s entry into the presidency for another five years by extra-constitutional measures would only lead to a political deadlock. He said the MMA had resolved as a matter of policy that Gen Musharraf was unacceptable with or without uniform.

The rulers, he said, had driven the country to a blind alley and were themselves groping in the dark owing to their wrong policies. He said the regime had also got the country and its people gripped in a chaotic condition.

The Maulana said the rulers were trying to delay parliamentary elections on one pretext or the other, but the MMA would foil their design in this regard.

He expressed his dismay over the government efforts to strike a ‘deal’ with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and said talks now going on in London were aimed at derailing the opposition’s democratic struggle.

The MMA leader warned Benazir Bhutto that in case her party entered into any deal with the regime she would be held responsible for strengthening undemocratic forces. — Correspondent