At a news conference held here on Thursday after a meeting of the provincial leadership of the alliance, Mr Baloch said MMA’s supreme council had decided before leaving for London that if any greater unity of opposition parties came into being at the multi-party conference, the MMA would join it without compromising on its entity as a coalition of religious parties and would not merge in the alliance.
He hailed the formation of the APDM saying that it would launch a joint struggle against the Musharraf-led military government with the objective of ridding the people of the regime which, he said, had persistently been trying to remain in power. But, he said, all the parties in the London moot were unanimously of the view that the continuation of the regime was fraught with the danger of compromising on vital national interests.
The MMA lashed out at PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto for `making all efforts to sabotage the MPC’ and opting to facilitate Gen Pervez Musharraf in his bid to get himself re-elected against the wishes of the people.
“It seems as if Ms Bhutto has no consideration other than her personal political interests for which she is prepared even to bargain on the issues of national importance,” Mr Baloch added.
LAL MASJID: The MMA leader demanded a judicial inquiry into the Lal Masjid issue by the Supreme Court. He also announced an MMA `fact-finding mission’ to probe the entire episode. He claimed that `hundreds’ were killed in the army-led operation while another 1,000 people belonging to Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa had gone missing. He also demanded that the dead should be handed over to their legal heirs.
Mr Baloch said the operation began at a time when the mosque administration and certain government leaders, including Shujaat Husain, had almost reached an agreement on all modalities of the surrender of the people. “This is clearly a conspiracy and Gen Pervez Musharraf is wholly responsible for the loss of lives,” he added.
He also announced a programme of protest meetings by the MMA starting from Friday (today) which would be observed a day of protest across the country.
The MMA would hold a protest meeting outside the Lahore Press Club. He said the alliance would organise a public meeting at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi on July 15.
Besides, ulema conventions would also be organised starting from July 16 when the first such congregation would be held at Jamia Ashrafia in Lahore. Similar conventions would also be held in Islamabad on July 19, Peshawar on July 26, Muzaffarabad on July 28, Karachi on Aug 2 and Quetta on Aug 9, he added.