RAWALPINDI, March 31: The local leaders of Muttahida Majlis- i-Amal (MMA) have criticized the remarks of President Gen Pervez Musharraf against the party's acting chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmad.

In a joint statement, the MMA district chief Mohammad Abbas Butt, deputy chief Raja Mohammad Zaheer, Maulana Abdul Jalil, Mohammad Sadiq Hassan, secretary-general Raja Abdul Waheed and secretary information Malik Mohammad Azam, took strong exception to President Musharraf's comments and said the religious parties alliance considered it as its responsibility to inform the nation of the actual agenda of the general.

The president in a television programme on Tuesday night said the MMA leaders, Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Prof Khursheed Ahmad, had been misleading the people through pressure politics, whereas the government had been taking steps in the national interest.

The MMA leaders condemned these remarks, saying that they had been raising awareness among the general public about every issue the nation was facing these days. The government, they said, had been blindly fulfilling American agenda. Dozens of innocent people were killed in army operation in Wana launched just to please the US, they added.

"It was the duty of the religious parties to raise voice against the government policies both inside and outside the parliament for the sake of the country, its people and religion." The trust people have reposed in the religious parties would not be damaged, they.