QUETTA, Nov 12: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s deputy parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, on Wednesday expressed the apprehension that the United States would use the Chagai and Makran coasts for an attack on Iran in 2004.

Talking to newsmen at the press club, he held the federal government responsible for failing to nab the alleged foreign agents involved in blasts in the province.

He termed President Gen Pervez Musharraf and former attorney-general Sharifuddin Pirzada the main hurdles in the tabling in parliament of the constitutional package agreed between the MMA and the government to ensure the continuity of the democratic process.

The MMA leader criticized American interferences in the region and said it would jeopardize the peaceful atmosphere in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

He alleged that the US Central Intelligence Agency planned to attack Iran in 2004 using Balochistan’s territory.

He asserted that although Pakistan had cooperated with the Bush government to topple the Taliban government, Washington did not trust Islamabad.

He said that if the US Federal Bureau of Investigation could catch Al Qaeda or Taliban members in Pakistan, why the security forces could not apprehend the Indian agents allegedly involved in rocket and bomb attacks.

He accused the Frontier Corps of patronizing smuggling in the province and asked why it had failed to stop the entry of RAW agents into the country from Afghanistan.

He said the Foreign Office and intelligence agencies had failed to expose the saboteurs.

He said the MMA’s supreme council would meet in Karachi on Nov 16 to devise a strategy to launch a movement against the Legal Framework Order, American interferences and the “illegal” army operation in the Waziristan Agency.

He said the MMA had asked the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy to join the movement against the government on the three-point agenda to struggle for the restoration of constitutional rule and the ARD would respond on Nov 15.

He said MMA leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed had informed Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali during an Iftar party given by former president Farooq Ahmed Leghari on Tuesday that the alliance would not hold talks with him till the agreed constitutional package was tabled in parliament.

He blamed President Musharraf and Mr Pirzada for obstructing the resolution of the LFO issue.

He said that the military ruler claimed that the LFO was a part of the Constitution but he himself took oath fro the second time when the Constitution was revived.

He said Senator S.M. Zafar and National Security Council Secretary Tariq Aziz had formulated the constitutional package in a meeting with MMA leaders on Sept 6 in Lahore.

He said the prime minister, who was powerless, had deviated from the constitutional package so the opposition had no option except to launch a movement against the government to make parliament sovereign.

Responding a question, he claimed that former government Abdul Qadir Baloch had resigned due to the apprehensions of Balochistan’s people about the construction of the Gwadar port.

He said the MMA and the nationalist groups had a similarity of views on the anti-people role of the Frontier Corps and the federal government’s policy on the Gwadar port project.