ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy on Wednesday cautiously welcomed the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal's decision of not participating in the meeting of the National Security Council scheduled for Thursday.

Talking to Dawn, People's Party Parliamentarians spokesman Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar said the alliance 'guardedly welcomed' MMA's decision and hoped that the alliance of religious parties would renounce the 17th Amendment.

He said the decision to shed uniform was based on the 17th Constitutional Amendment for which the MMA lent its shoulder to the government.He said the MMA's announcement was guardedly welcomed because there were reports that the MMA had given three demands to slow down the tempo of protest demonstration.

These demands included amendment to the NSC Act, withdrawal of the uniform bill and release of funds to the Frontier government. It has also been reported that if the government gave an assurance to begin dialogue on these issues, the MMA might attend the next NSC meeting, he added.

"It would, therefore, appear that there is a distinct possibility, indeed a probability, of the MMA participating in the NSC meeting on the basis of an illusory assurance by the government to merely discuss its demands," he said.

The secretary-general of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Punjab, MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq, told this correspondent that the MMA had presented its demands to the government regarding reconstitution of the NSC which were based on the amendments, moved by it at the time of the 17th Amendment.