QUETTA, Jan 2: Pakistan Workers Party president Nasrullah Khan Kakar has said that if the MMA is sincere about launching a movement against President Musharraf then its ministers in the NWFP and Balochistan should quit their offices.

Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, he claimed that the military uniform was neither an issue of the people nor of Islam and pointed out that the Senate and the National Assembly had adopted a bill paving the way for Gen Musharraf to hold the offices of the president and the COAS simultaneously.

He said that the Musharraf government had taken concrete steps to give economy a boost. The mega projects launched in Balochistan by the federal government were ample proof of Gen Musharraf's desire to remove the grievances of the Baloch people ignored by successive governments.

Mr Kakar said that the president was a farsighted ruler who was tolerating the MMA government in the NWFP and Balochistan and had allowed PPP leader Asif Zardari to go abroad.