ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: The opposition Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on Thursday rejected President General Pervez Musharraf's decision to retain two offices and announced their decision to launch a joint struggle against him.

The ARD leaders announced that they would join hands with the MMA in observing 'black day' on Saturday against Gen Musharraf's 'breach of promise' on the uniform issue.

The two alliances agreed on the joint agenda after the failure of Wednesday's meeting between the Leader of Opposition, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Both the alliances said they would finalize a joint strategy to launch a combined struggle for upholding the sanctity of the constitution, supremacy of parliament and restoration of democracy.

Talking to journalists after a meeting of the leaders of the two alliances, ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim said Gen Musharraf had no right to rule the country and "it would be better for him to send the army back to barracks and hand over power to people's representatives immediately."

"We will launch a joint movement along with the MMA against the misrule of General Musharraf and show him the door," he pledged. MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed said they would launch the anti-Musharraf campaign with a black day on January 1.

He said they would not rest till the ouster of General Musharraf who, he added, had broken a pledge he had made to the nation. He accused the ruling Pakistan Muslim League of violating the government-MMA agreement by passing a controversial law allowing Gen Musharraf to retain two offices.

At the brief meeting held at the residence of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the two sides signed a joint statement which was read out to the press by MMA's secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

"We reject the president's speech and announce our determination to launch a joint struggle against the violation of the constitution and putting the parliament to ridicule," read the statement.

The president, it said, had no right to rule the country nor was he eligible to remain the army chief under Article 282. "He has broken the pledge he made with the nation and has become a controversial person and we reject him as president.

"General Musharraf, while announcing retaining the COAS uniform till 2007, has also violated his oath as president of Pakistan. Therefore, the MMA and ARD have decided to launch a joint struggle to rid the country of Musharraf's rule," the statement said.

Qazi Hussain had invited the ARD leadership to dinner to discuss the situation and agree to launch a joint movement against the government. ARD chairman and PPP Parliamentarians president Makhdoom Amin Fahim, PML-N's acting president Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and PPP Parliamentarians secretary-general Raja Parvaiz Ashraf attended the meeting.

Qazi Hussain was accompanied by Maulana Fazl, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Liaquat Baloch. Before going into the session, the two sides listened to the president's address to the nation.