‘17th Amendment leaves no room for uniform’

Staff Report

LAHORE: Legal experts and government representatives having secular mentality are trying to create confusion about the 17th Amendment but General Pervez Musharraf will have to shed his uniform by December 31, said Liaqat Baloch, the naib ameer Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, he said that according to articles 41, 43, 61 and 63(1) (d), President Musharraf was bound to quit one office after December 31 or he would be disqualified from both offices. The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) did not have the majority in the National Assembly to further amend the 17th Amendment to accommodate the president, he added.

Mr Baloch said there would be no further dialogue on the uniform issue as it was time to implement the 17th Amendment. He warned PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi not to become targets of public hatred as in future the Punjab would be the centre of the political and democratic struggle. The Chaudhry brothers should show political courage and cooperate with democratic forces for the implementation of the 17th Amendment, he added.

About the Jamaat’s three-day congregation beginning today (Friday), Mr Baloch said that the congregation would be a peaceful moot in which a national charter would be announced to pull the country out of all crises. The elimination of the army’s supremacy, enforcement of Islamic law, help for Kashmiri freedom fighters, restoration of peace in the world, supremacy of the Constitution, protection of Islamic ideology, protection of places of worship places and rights of minorities would be the main topics which would be discussed in the moot.

About the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s anti-government movement, the JI leader said that the religious alliance had formed a five-member committee to negotiate with other political parties on the uniform issue. Mr Baloch said the religious alliance would start a mass contact campaign after Ramadan for the restoration of true democracy to in the country.

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