KARACHI, March 6: Chief of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Qazi Hussain Ahmed said on Sunday that the MMA and the ARD had agreed to launch a joint struggle on a three-point agenda.
Opposition to General Pervez Musharraf as both president and the army chief, establishing supremacy of parliament and getting the 1973 Constitution restored to its form as it was before October 12, 1999, are the three points on which the two alliances concur, he said.
He was talking to newsmen at the Jinnah Terminal of Karachi airport on Sunday after his arrival from Lahore on a three-day visit. He said the consensus had been reached after MMA leaders' meetings with Makhdoom Amin Faheem and Raja Zafar-ul-Haque.
He, however, said that the MMA would also continue its struggle against American atrocities and for the solution of people's problems. "The MMA would also give a strike call against the soaring prices of daily-use items," he added.
He declared that the 'million march' rally would be held on March 20 in Karachi at all cost. If any attempt was made to stop it, the government would be held responsible for its consequences, he added.
He said the MMA had never created any law and order situation as it believed in peaceful democratic struggle. "We would bring people onto the streets to record their peaceful protest but if a law and order situation was created, it would be because of the government."
Mr Ahmed, who is also Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami, said the 'million march' rallies would also be organized in Lahore on March 23 and in Peshawar on March 25. Moreover, the MMA and the Aalmi Majlis Khatm-i-Nabuwat had decided to stage a demonstration outside parliament in Islamabad on Wednesday to protest against elimination of religion column from passports and "secular policies" of the government.
He said a meeting of traders and transporters had been called on March 10 to give strike call against increasing prices of petroleum products and the general price spiral.
He said the government policies had brought miseries to the people and pushed the graph of poverty up. "But we would not leave people helpless and continue to build pressure on the rulers to solve their problems".
On arrival, the MMA chief was received by local leaders MNA Asadullah Bhutto, Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui, MNA Abdul Sattar Afghani, MPAs Nasrullah Shaji, Hameedullah Khan, and Yunus Barai.
He will address a women's rally on Tuesday at Idara Noor-i-Haq to be organized by JI women's wing against poverty, price-hike, unemployment, obscenity and "secular polices of the government".