ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has agreed that it will help the government introduce an amendment to the Constitution so that Gen Pervez Musharraf can get a vote of confidence from the electoral college instead of having to run for presidential election.

This was stated by MMA’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Qazi Hussain Ahmed while talking to reporters at a dinner hosted by the Supreme Council of the religious parties alliance for the participants of an International Muslim Women Conference at the Frontier House here on Saturday.

The MMA leader said the alliance had given its consent to the government on its proposal that Gen Musharraf did not require fresh elections, but needed a confidence vote from the National Assembly, Senate and all the four provincial assemblies.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the government rightly claimed that the uniform issue had been settled. He said the initial draft, prepared by a committee under Senator S.M. Zafar, included the date of December 31, 2004, for the removal of uniform by Gen Pervez Musharraf.

He said the government had agreed to include this cut-off date in the constitutional package for the approval of parliament. However, he said, in the final draft, handed over to the MMA by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, there was no mention of the cut-off date.

He said that in the proposed constitutional package it was clearly stated that the MMA and the government had agreed that Gen Musharraf could hold the two offices together for a specified time. He said the MMA had sought clarification from the government on three points and no new demands had been made, as claimed by Gen Musharraf.

The MMA, Qazi said, wanted the government to include the date of December 31, 2004, in the package as the date when the clause prohibiting holding of two offices simultaneously would become effective.

He condemned the operation of Pakistan Army in South Waziristan and said it was carried out on the directives of the United States.

He said the soldiers killed during the operation could not be termed “Shaheed”. He said the MMA supreme council would chalk out a future strategy regarding the operations in the tribal areas in its next meeting soon.

APP adds: MMA president Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani said in Lahore that the alliance and the government teams, which held talks to prepare the proposed constitutional package, were near an agreement.

He was addressing a two-day workers convention which began at Minar-i-Pakistan under the auspices of Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Punjab.

The convention was presided over by Pir of Bharchundi Sharif and Amir, Markazi Jamiat Ahle Sunnat, Pir Mian Abdul Khaliq.

Maulana Noorani regretted that even after 10 months of talks no agreement had yet been reached on the package.