LAHORE, Sept 26: All the eight Jamaat-i-Islami members, including two women, in the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday announced their resignations from the legislature and authorised their parliamentary leader Asghar Ali Gujjar to hand them over to the speaker as and when the All Parties Democratic Movement wanted them to

do so.

Six of these MPAs were elected directly to the Punjab Assembly and the remaining two were returned on the seats reserved for women.

They made the announcement at a news conference at Mansoora where they said the APDM had taken the decision in the best national interest because the alliance was fighting for a true democratic Pakistan.

They said Gen Pervez Musharraf was flouting the Constitution by seeking his re-election for another term in the presidency in uniform, and the MMA and the APDM were left with no choice but to quit the assemblies because the opposition did not want to become a party to the breach of the country’s basic law.

They said they had also issued an authority letter and given that to a person who would approach the assembly speaker to hand him their resignations in case they were arrested. They condemned the government for the arrests of the opposition leaders and activists, particularly the members of the president’s electoral college, and said the regime had turned the country into a police state where one candidate was free and all his opponents were in jail.