ISLAMABAD March 9: Prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has held out an assurance to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal that his government will not repeal the Hudood Ordinance or effect any changes in the law.
The prime minister gave the assurance to MMA acting president Qazi Hussain Ahmed who called on him at the Prime Minister House on Monday evening. Qazi Hussain told a news conference here on Tuesday that he had met the prime minister on his own initiative and remained with him for about 100 minutes, during which Mr Jamali assured him that the ordinance would not be repealed.
He further said that he laid down the terms and conditions, on behalf of his alliance, for extending 'positive cooperation' to the Jamali government in parliament.
He said he had made it clear to the premier that the MMA would not accept the National Security Council with the mandate of inter-provincial coordination and crisis management as these subjects, he added, did not exist in the proposed draft amendments passed as the 17th Amendment Bill.
When asked as to what was the response of Mr Jamali to MMA's position on a host of issues like Wana operation, the nuclear programme, Kashmir and Pakistan-India talks, the MMA leader said the prime minister only gave him a patient hearing.
When asked as to why he took the trouble of discussing such crucial issues with Mr Jamali who seemingly has no powers, the MMA chief said the prime minister could not be powerless since the entire parliament was behind him and he enjoyed vast constitutional powers.
Qazi Hussain said he told Mr Jamali to ask president Gen Pervez Musharraf to nominate new chief of army staff (COAS) in anticipation of his retirement. From MMA's point of view, he further said, the governance system was being tactically converted into the presidential one by deviating from the Constitution which "lays stress on a federal Islamic democratic system in accordance with the Objectives Resolution".
He said he also apprised the premier about the president's "intervention" in provincial powers through the district governments and police ordinance. Similarly, he said, he told Mr Jamali that interference in Federally Administered Tribal Areas was also against the Constitution which gave the tribesmen internal self-rule.
He claimed that the MMA had entered into a deal with the government on the 17th Amendment in good faith to steer the country out of a crisis and that was why it refused to accept the office of deputy prime minister, speaker and four key ministries which were offered as a quid pro quo.
Responding to a query, the MMA leader said: "We have told the premier that the army has no constitutional jurisdiction to intervene in the tribal areas and what is being done in the name of military operation there is completely unconstitutional."
To another query he claimed that the Wana operation was not being conducted against any foreign elements but against the local people. So far as the existence of some Arabs was concerned, he said, they had come on valid visas and had lived there for more than 20 years which gave them the right to claim citizenship.