KARACHI, Nov 21: MMA Deputy Secretary General Liaquat Baloch has expressed apprehensions that after settling the uniform issue, President Musharraf may resort to abrogating the 1973 Constitution in order to replace the parliamentary form of government with the presidential one.

Such a move, he said, would pave way for a permanent role of the armed forces in politics.

Mr Baloch, accompanied by Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui, Allama Hasan Turabi, Qari Sher Afzal and other leaders, was addressing a press conference at the Idara Noor-i-Haq here on Sunday.

The MMA would never accept supremacy of the army over politics, parliament and Constitution, he said, adding, nor would it compromise on the Islamic and ideological identity of the country.

Mr Baloch, who is also Naib Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami, warned that if any attempt was made to obstruct the holding of the Nov 28 public rally, the MMA would launch a nationwide protest movement.

He described the ruling party's move to hold its own public meeting on the same venue as 'mischief', and pointed out that the PML was not in a position to organize a public meeting anywhere in the country without using the state machinery.

Reiterating the MMA stand on uniform issue, Liaquat Baloch said that under the 17th constitutional amendment, Gen Musharraf was bound to relinquish one of his two posts by December 31 this year.

The MMA leader said that by keeping the positions of army chief and president simultaneously, Gen Musharraf was creating a crisis that would lead to political instability in the country.

Referring to the justification that "the country is facing an external threat owing to which it is necessary for the president to remain as COAS", Mr Baloch said that the uniform controversy had been creating divisions among the nation. As such, he added, it was all the more necessary for General Musharraf to doff his uniform that would ultimately prevent the division and lead to national unity to face the external threat more effectively.

Rejecting the other justification given in this regard, the MMA leader warned that if Kalabagh Dam was got built by the president in the uniform, it would prove a dangerous game that would undermine the solidarity and integrity of the country.

In reply to a question, he said the MMA welcomed the ARD decision of holding a public meeting in Peshawar. When asked about the meeting between Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and opposition leader in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Liaquat Baloch said the aim of this routine meeting was to create a better relationship between the government and opposition.

In reply to the question that whether Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the NWFP chief minister would be attending the meeting of the National Security Council (NSC), he said that the matter would be decided by the MMA's supreme council at its meeting in Karachi on Nov 24.

Mr Baloch said the MMA had decided to launch the anti-government drive from Karachi because it recognized the valiant struggle for democracy and unprecedented sacrifices by people of this city.

"Karachi is a mini-Pakistan and it is its right to lead to the democratic struggle," he remarked. Before organizing a long march towards Islamabad, the MMA was holding public meetings in major cities of the country, he added.

Commenting on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's address to the nation, Mr Baloch said that the PM had recounted the issues being faced by the nation, but he did not suggest a line of action to resolve them.