LAHORE, April 21: The MMA on Monday mounted pressure on President Musharraf in its drive to make parliament as the supreme body of the country and restore the Constitution in its original form.
In their speeches and a news conference here, alliance president Senator Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Qazi Hussain Ahmad, and five MNAs resolved that the MMA would not compromise on its ‘two-point’ agenda to solve the current ‘constitutional crisis’.
Talking to reporters after a seminar here on Monday, Senator Noorani urged Gen Pervez Musharraf to put off his uniform for the “sake of the country’s integrity, sovereignty and democracy and contest presidential election as envisaged in the constitution.”
He said the expenses on the April 2002 presidential referendum were unconstitutional as there was no such provision in the basic law of the country for undertaking the exercise.
He said the MMA had contested elections under the PCO and not the LFO as was being claimed by certain government quarters. “Those saying so are deceiving the nation.”
He hoped that the government would give in on the LFO issue as a result of the pressure being built up by the opposition. The masses, he said, won’t be required to take to streets on this issue.
Answering a question, he said a no-trust move against the Senate chairman was under consideration as all formalities in this regard were being completed.
QAZI: Speaking at a meeting of the Markazia Majlis-i-Iqbal to observe the death anniversary of Allama Iqbal here on Monday, Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the supremacy of the military and the National Security Council over the parliament was against the constitution and negation of democracy which would not be acceptable to the Opposition.
“By military, I mean the president’s post as chief of army staff.”
He said that if parliament’s sovereignty and independence as provided in the constitution was assured, the opposition would be ready to hold negotiations with Musharraf, accepting him as president for the time being. “This offer is only to solve the prevailing constitutional crisis,” he asserted.
He warned that if MMA’s demand was not accepted it had the capability of taking out people to streets. “Millions of people can come out on the MMA appeal,” he said. However, he said that MMA would prefer to adopt a reconciliatory approach.
MNAs: The LFO is in conflict with the Objectives Resolution and article 248 of the Constitution, claimed five MMA MNAs at a joint press conference here on Monday.
They were Maulana Abdul Malik, Maulana Abdullah Chitrali, Maulana Abdur Rauf, Maulana Asadullah Khan and Maulana Ahmad Ghafoor.
If the LFO was considered as a part of the Constitution, both the Objectives Resolution and the Article 248 would stand abrogated, they claimed.
Declaring PML-Q members as a disgrace to religion as well as the country, they said both the “League and Gen Pervez Musharraf are part of a Qabza group and the MMA will liberate the nation and the country from their clutches.”
They said cooperating with the Q-League would amount to extending support for dictatorship.
About rumours that the parliament might be dissolved, they said assemblies were not mud houses that they could be demolished within six months. They, however, said that there would be a real threat to the existence of the assemblies as far as the LFO was there.
Answering a question, they said the spending of public money on the presidency was unconstitutional as no constitutional president existed in the country.