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Fillip to Pakistan democracy push

Nirupama Subramanian

MMA to support no-confidence resolution

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Opposition parties have found another ally with the six-party religious coalition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an off-again on-again supporter of President Pervez Musharraf, declaring it would back their plan to move a no-confidence motion against the Government.

"We have reached a consensus to fight for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Now it is to be decided when we will move the no-trust motion," MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Friday at a joint press conference in Karachi with the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, the banner under which 12 Opposition parties have banded together.

The biggest constituents of the ARD are the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz). The ARD decided last month to launch a campaign to force Gen. Musharraf to leave one of his two offices, for the removal of the Government and for the appointment of an interim government to hold the next national and provincial elections, due in late 2007. As a first move, the ARD planned to move a no-confidence motion in Parliament on July 31, but even with the support of the MMA it is doubtful the Opposition parties can succeed in this venture.

Even so, Makhdum Amin Faheem, chairman of the ARD, termed the MMA's decision as a big achievement. "If the Opposition benches are united at one point, I think it's a big achievement," he said.

How this new alliance will pull together is a question as the ARD considers itself a secular Opposition, while the MMA is a coalition of Islamic parties, with the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamaat-e-Ulema-Islami as its biggest constituents.

The MMA is furious with Gen. Musharraf for his pro-U.S. tilt, and his role in the "war on terror". The MMA is also angry that the President has not yet kept his promise to quit his post as army chief.

"It has been proved that it is a failed Government that has lost the confidence of the masses. The no-trust motion is not only our constitutional but also democratic right," Mr. Rehman said.

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