SAHIWAL, Dec 1: The MMA has not yet decided to join any anti-government movement along with the ARD. The MMA has, however, extended invitation to the ARD to join its public meetings to be held in Multan , Lahore and Rawalpindi on Dec 5, 12 and 19, respectively.

This was stated by Punjab Jamaat-i-Islami amir and MMA leader MNA Liaquat Baloch while talking to newsmen here on Tuesday night. A decision about launching a protest movement would be taken by the MMA supreme council after Dec 20, Mr Baloch said.

MMA president Qazi Husain Ahmad has made it clear that the struggle of the religious alliance was only the part of liaison campaign with masses, he added. Mr Baloch claimed that all efforts of the government to create differences in the ranks of MMA have failed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman was the symbol of unity of the alliance.

Earlier, Mr Baloch said at a Mashaikh Convention and an Eid Milan party a decisive protest would be held if President Gen Musharraf failed to separate the two offices by Dec 31. His stubbornness to keep both the offices would create difficulties for him.

Religious circles would not allow the government to make the country a secular state on the American agenda, he claimed. A resolution was adopted at the convention demanding restoration of the column of religion in the national passport. The convention was also addressed by district Jamaat amir Dr Tahir Siraj, district MMA president Sheikh Shahid Hamid and general secretary Qari Rashid Tahir.