ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on Monday demanded of President Gen Musharraf to relinquish the post of Chief of Army Staff to prove his sincerity to the commitment of giving real democracy a chance in the country.

The MMA supreme council, which met here on Monday with Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani in the chair, reviewed the political situation emerged after the establishment of governments at Centre and in provinces.

The meeting also discussed the situation arising out of the postponement of Sindh Assembly session and expressed its concern over its negative impacts.

The alliance discussed the political talks initiated by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali with the MMA leaders and decided to continue the process of dialogue to reach a broader understanding on smooth functioning of the democratic institutions.

Talking to newsmen after the three-hour meeting, Maulana Noorani dispelled the impression that the alliance’s support to the Jamali government was unconditional.

He said: “We definitely desire that the democratic system flourish without any hindrance but our cooperation to the government would only be available if our demands viz-a-viz constitutional amendments and president’s status were met.”

When asked who would represent the MMA as leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, he said: “We are in the process of strengthening parliament right now and such questions are secondary for us.”

The MMA, he said, specially discussed and condemned the US bombing of no-fly zone in Iraq and killing of innocent civilians especially at a time when the UN inspectors were busy in detecting weapons in Iraq. He said in MMA’s view the bombing in Basra, Najaf Ashraf and Karbala was a mean to divert the attention of people from the genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli forces.

Maulana Noorani asked the Ulema and Khateeb across the country to condemn the US aggression against the Muslims in their sermons on Eidul Fitr.

When asked about the flexibility demonstrated by the MMA in dialogues with the PML-Q, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who was also present on the occasion, said: “We have agreed to discuss some of the constitutional amendments and have offered to the president that we would help him elected by parliament if he quits his army chief post.”

Maulana Noorani dismissed as baseless the reports that the MMA had been offered the post of deputy prime minister or the religio-political alliance had made any new concessions in the recent round of talks at Peshawar.

He said that the alliance would meet again on Dec 17 in Peshawar to review the political situation.

The supreme council, he said, endorsed the formation of governments in NWFP and Balochistan.

When asked why the MMA decided to sit with the GNA in Balochistan when it had reached an understanding with PONM a day earlier and had refused to sit with it at Centre, Maulana Fazlur Rahman said: “Province is province and Centre is Centre as the dynamics of both are different from each other.”

To a question about reports that the JUI-F had made a deal with the government for the release of its two members from the custody of NAB, the Maulana said: “We had declared in July 2000 that the entire process of accountability is based on personal vendetta and political victimization and hence we do not accept any arrest made by the NAB as genuine or legal.”

He, however, made it clear that the MMA had decided to join the provincial government after acceptance of its demands.

The JUI-F chief said: “We stick to our principled stand on the national issues and have demonstrated sufficient flexibility in the interest of democracy. Now it is the turn of the government to review its attitude towards the Constitution amendments on the basis of democratic norms.”

When asked to explain the conditions put forward by the alliance, Qazi Hussain Ahmed said: “We all agree that the Constitution is an undisputed document which should not be distorted by arbitrary amendments and parliament was supreme body which should not be dwarfed by a supra-constitutional body like that of National Security Council.”

Similarly, he added, it would be an insult of the president’s office if it was occupied by a man in uniform. We, therefore, ask Gen Musharraf to uphold democratic principles by handing over all powers to the democratic institutions.

When asked why the MMA failed to field a joint candidate for the post of speaker against the PML-Q in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazl said the move failed because the PPP had no mandate from its chairperson for the purpose.”

He alleged that the PPP chairperson was issuing statements only to please the Americans and had no concern with the nation or the national interests.