LAHORE, April 20: Qazi Husain Ahmad has said that the MMA will not accept Gen Pervez Musharraf as the president unless the LFO is withdrawn.

The president should be the president and not an army chief or a politician, the MMA parliamentary leader said on Sunday. He was speaking at a seminar on ‘effective district government system’ here.

The MMA had, during a three-hour meeting, urged Gen Musharraf to resign as the COAS. But he insisted that he would neither shed his uniform nor would give any date in this regard, the Qazi claimed.

He made it clear that the MMA would not cooperate (with the government) at any cost if the general did not put off his uniform.

He said the district government ordinance should also be presented before the National Assembly for approval and improving it further.

He denied that they had taken part in the Oct 10 elections under the LFO. The elections had been held under the PCO, he claimed.

About the allegation that MMA legislators were receiving TA/DA without taking part in law making in the Senate and the National Assembly, he said they were ready to surrender the allowances and would take them as unlawful as far as the LFO issue was not settled.

Qazi Husain said Chaudhry Shujaat Husain was backing out of his promise made during an understanding reached among six parties while negotiating on the LFO.

It had been unanimously decided that the 1973 Constitution would be kept uncontroversial while all the stakeholders would be taken into confidence over the supremacy of parliament, he said.

PML-Q’s MNA Mahnaz Rafi said 40,000 women had been included in the governance through the new local councils system for the first time in the history.

Drawing attention of the government towards the fact that voters were also approaching their respective MNAs and MPAs for getting solved their local problems, she said the elected representatives could not refuse their voters but they should only focus on law-making process.

Criticizing the opposition leaders’ stance over the LFO, she said they loved to meet Gen Musharraf whenever they were invited for the purpose. They were also getting their problems solved through the ministers. But when they were among the masses, they would refuse to accept Musharraf as the president.

Tehrik-i-Istiqlal president Rehmat Khan Vardag and chairman Qaiser Ahmad Shaikh said the incumbent local body system was similar to the one presented by their party during the 1979 polls.

Urging the need for further improving the system, they said district development committees should also include Senators, MNAs and MPAs of the respective district.

It would end the sense of deprivation among the MPs as they could also suggest and monitor various development works in their respective constituencies.

They also stressed that district Nazims should be bound to distribute development funds equally among all union councils so that no one could usurp funds of his rivals.

They suggested that the DCO should be authorized to monitor execution of uplift works, approved by the Nazims, to minimize corruption chances.