PESHAWAR, Jan 6: Aalami Majlis-i-Tahaffuz-i-Khatam-i-Nabuwwat Pakistan has adopted a unanimous resolution, calling upon the government to restore the religion column in the machine readable passports.

The conference, held at the Nishtar Hall on Thursday, also decided to continue the protest unless the government changed its decision about the religion column.

Speaking at the conference Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) deputy parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Hafiz Hussain Ahmad said that the government was following the agenda of Ahmadis and removed religion column from the new passport to please them.

He asserted that "un-Islamic forces" had intensified conspiracies against the Khatam-i-Nabuwwat and pressurised the government to give a secular nature to the constitution.

He held out an assurance that the MMA would resist the decision and appealed to other political parties to forge unity in their ranks against "un-Islamic" steps taken by the government.

Mr Hussain said that the federal cabinet was not taken into confidence before removing religion's column from the passport and even religious minister had not been taken into confidence over the issue.

He said the federal cabinet had constituted a committee to review the matter of religion column in the passport. The MMA, he said, rejected the committee formed for this purpose and said it would oppose any decision if constitutional requirements were not fulfilled.

Later, talking to reporters, Mr Hussain said that both the MMA had Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) wanted to restore the 1973 Constitution in its original form.

He said that talks between the MMA and ARD would pave the way for the formation of a grand opposition alliance. He said a final decision in this regard would be taken after ARD's meeting scheduled for Jan 11. He claimed that the ARD had also supported the MMA stance on the religion's column issue.