KARACHI, Aug 31: Secretary-General of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said the MMA is holding talks with the government with an open mind so as to rid the country of dictatorship and put it on the road to democracy.
He said the Constitution was a guarantee for the solidarity, survival and stability of the country and no issue could be solved by making it controversial.
Maulana Fazl, who is also chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, was addressing the general council of the Sindh JUI and members of the Sindh Assembly at Jamia Madnia Islamia, here on Sunday. After the council session, he also had a brief chat with reporters.
Referring to the on-going talks with the government, he said Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s stand was based on principles, and its struggle was to uphold these principles.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader said the Sanads’ issue, the NWFP government or the membership of the assembly should not be taken as Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s weakness. “We have always taken a principled stand and faced every repressive regime.”
He pointed out that the NWFP and its tribal areas were once considered to be safe haven for criminals but the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government had cleansed the society of crimes and turned the province into a cradle of peace. “This fact is recognised even by the members of the federal cabinet,” he said, and added that it was the outcome of good governance in the NWFP that the foreign entrepreneurs were keen to set up their factories and industrial units in the province.
Maulana Fazl said though Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali had recognised the judicious distribution and use of development funds in the NWFP, the federal government’s attitude towards the opposition was worse than that of an enemy.
He said the United States wanted to enslave the entire humanity through its military and economic power without recognising the fact that it was very badly bruised in Afghanistan and Iraq, and looking a way out to save its soldiers from being killed in the operations.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader said the figures reported in the media were not even 10 per cent of those killed.
The Kalabagh dam and Greater Thal Canal issues were being raised to propel the nationalist forces in the country so that the rulers could achieve their objective, he added.
In reply to a question, Maulana Fazl said it was the Speaker who had to determine the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly but as he had been following the instructions of the government, the matter could not yet be decided.
In support of his contention, he referred to the 1973 National Assembly in which there were eight members of the Awami National Party while the JUI had seven members and the speaker had declared Wali Khan as the leader of the opposition.
To another question, he said the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq had proved that governments could be made to fall through military might but the war could not be won through it.
He favoured holding of talks with India for normalisation of relations but claimed that in the army and establishment there were two groups — supporters and opponents of Pakistan-India negotiations. At present, he said, the group opposed to talks was having a sway over the other.
Earlier, JUI Secretary-General Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, speaking to the council session, said the amendments made by Gen Pervez Musharraf in the Constitution had to be presented in parliament and could be made part of the Constitution only when adopted by the two-thirds majority of the National Assembly.