MMA leaders reject package

Published July 23, 2002

ISLAMABAD, July 22: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leaders at a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf on Monday, rejected the proposed constitutional package and warned that it would lead to confrontation between the elected government and the president.

The proposed amendments would cause derailment and result in chaos rather than establishment of a stable democratic system in the country, MMA leaders said in a statement read out by Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani at the meeting.

These amendments would not usher in the establishment of a stable democratic system but a fascist government, the MMA leader said.

The MMA team included Allama Sajid Naqvi, chief of the Tehrik Nifaz-i-Fiqha Jaferia, an organization banned on allegations of propagating sectarianism.

“It would amount to humiliate the whole nation that an individual with his coterie of experts would bind the coming generations to his limited thinking and biased opinion,” the MMA said in the statement copies of which were made available to the press.

The MMA delegation urged President Musharraf to refrain from amending the constitution and leave the job for the future elected government.

Others in the MMA were: Maulana Samiul Haq, chief of his faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam; Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and Jamiat Ahle Hadees chief Sajid Mir.

Commenting on the power of the prime minister and that of the president in the proposed package, the MMA said that the prime minister would be hostage to the president. “Prime minister would live with the fear that the rug could be pulled from his feet anytime by the president.”

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