ISLAMABAD, March 6: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has decided to launch a countrywide mass contact campaign in April and May to exert pressure on the government to abandon its policy of bowing to American dictates , to halt the military operations in tribal areas, to safeguard the country's nuclear assets and to stop the ongoing "humiliation of nuclear scientists."

The objectives of this mass contact campaign is to foil the attempts being made "to secularize the country" and to pressure the government to implement the recommendations of Council of Islamic Ideology, said Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who announced the decisions of the MMA at a news conference here on Saturday.

The supreme council of the religious alliance, which met with its acting president Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the chair, also decided to launch a campaign against the ongoing military operation in the tribal areas, by sending its senior leadership to these areas and by holding protest rallies across the NWFP.

Among others who attended the meeting included MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman, deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, deputy secretary-general Liaqat Baloch, senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, JUP representative Lt-Gen (retd) K.M.Azhar, and banned Tehrik-i-Islami deputy chief Maulana Abdul Jalil Naqvi.

Two component party heads Maulana Samiul Haq and Allama Sajid Mir remained absent and none of their party representative turned up either.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman, flanked by Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Gen K.M.Azhar, said the unity in the MMA will be kept at all costs. He also pledged to remove the complaints of the two estranged leaders.

Responding to a query, Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the proposed mass contact movement could take the form of a mass movement against the government if the MMA's major demands were not accepted.

The MMA rejected in its totality the proposed draft National Security Council Act, branding it as an attempt to strip parliament of its powers. The proposed draft has already been approved by the federal cabinet and is expected to be tabled in the national Assembly when it meets on March 8.

The MMA said despite the existence of an elected parliament, the country was still being run under a presidential system.

It, therefore, asked President Gen Musharraf to confine his activities within the constitutional bounds and to immediately relinquish the office of Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) so as to enable the country to have a full-time COAS. This, the MMA said, had become crucial "in view of the dangerous developments on our borders."

The MMA announced that in the first phase, it would hold public rallies at Karachi, Jacobabad, Larkana, Hyderabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Jhelum, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Lahore, Peshawar, Abbottabad, Quetta and Zhob.

The alliance decided to appoint a four-member committee of senior leaders, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Gen (retd) K.M. Azhar and Allama Abdul Jalil Naqvi to persuade the two estranged leaders, Maulana Samiul Haq and Allama Sajjid Mir, to return to the MMA fold and attend its next meeting scheduled for March 17.

The MMA demanded immediate release of banned Tehrik-i-Islami chief Allama Sajid Ali Naqvi, ARD president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and the spouse of former prime minister Asif Ali Zardari.

It said Allama Naqvi has been proved to be innocent hence he ought to be released and the real culprits behind the murder of Azam Tariq MNA must be exposed. The MMA also demanded the release of Mr Hashmi "as he was detained without a valid case". It said there was no justification in keeping Asif Zardari in jail after the failure of the prosecution to prove anything against him.

The MMA said it will start contacts with other political and religious organizations and a report in this connection will be presented in the next supreme council meeting.

The alliance viewed the frequent Islamabad visits by high-profile international personalities in recent days with concern and demanded that the government take parliament and the people at large into confidence on these visits.

It expressed its reservations about the signing of additional protocol with India on the sidelines of Saarc summit and termed it a conspiracy against the cause of Kashmir. It reiterated the demand that the people of Kashmir be given their right to self-determination as envisaged by UN resolutions.

The MMA expressed its deep concern over the incidents on Ashura in Baghdad and Quetta and described them part of an international conspiracy against Islam and Muslims.