At a news conference here, he warned that the “foul play” would prompt the people to take the situation under their control after which “no organized force”, a euphemism for the army, would be in a position to overpower them. However, he made it clear that the alliance did not believe in violence.
This was his first meeting with the Lahore media after taking over as head of the multi-party ARD.
PPP leaders Qasim Zia, Khalid Kharal, Altaf Qureshi and Munir Khan were also present.
The ARD chief said that the alliance was launching a new phase of a mass contact campaign with a public meeting at Peshawar on Oct 24. The chief objective of the campaign, he said, was to rid the country of dictatorship, restore the Constitution as it existed before the takeover by Gen Musharraf and maintain supremacy of parliament and parliamentarians.
Makhdoom said the ARD would continue its struggle both in parliament and outside.
Reiterating that the ARD did not accept the LFO as part of the Constitution, he said any amendment to the basic law could be made only in a manner provided for the purpose.
In response to a question, he said although the ARD had not closed its doors for talks with the government, it would not accept anything repugnant to the Constitution.
For the time being, he said, the government was engaged in talks with the MMA alone and thus the ARD was watching the situation very carefully.
He told a questioner that although the MMA was willing to elect Gen Musharraf president under certain conditions, the ARD did not accept a general’s right to wear the mantle of the president. He said a procedure had been laid down in the Constitution for the election of the president and Gen Musharraf should follow the same.
Asked about the status of the white-paper issued recently by an ARD leader and disowned by smaller components of the alliance as individual views of the man, Makhdoom said differences, if any, would be settled in the coalition’s forthcoming meeting.
He said it had been decided in the life of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan that such a document would be prepared. But, he said, the timing of its issuance might be a moot point.
Questioned whether the ARD would join hands with the MMA in launching an anti-government campaign hinted at by Qazi Husain Ahmed, Makhdoom Amin Fahim said his alliance was launching its own mass contact drive.
The ARD chief, who is also president of the PPP-Parliamentarians, did not support a demand for the formation of a national government at this stage. He said such a demand was relevant some time back, not now.
It may be pointed out that the Punjab executive of the PPP had made the demand only a few weeks ago.
Any decision by the PPP would be discussed by the ARD before formulating the alliance’s policy on a particular subject, Makhdoom clarified.
He said the Constitution should be followed to steer the country out of the crisis it had been facing for the past 11 months.
Before the news conference, Makhdoom visited the PDP office and paid tribute to the late Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan in the presence of various ARD leaders.
He met PDP President Mansoor Khan and offered condolences over the death of his father Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan.