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Give us Sharia or quit, MMA tells Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Friday offered to back down on demands that President Pervez Musharraf step down and undergo an election process, if he agreed to leave the army and make Islamic law (Sharia) supreme.

“We are ready to give Gen Musharraf some concessions if our demands that Sharia be made supreme law, Friday be declared a holiday and the recommendations of the Islamic Ideology Council be implemented are met,” Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said. Interest would also have to be abolished from banking.

The JI could then endorse Gen Musharraf’s presidency without forcing him to quit and undergo a standard election by the parliament, as JI’s coalition partners and other opposition parties demand.

However, the JI will still expect Musharraf to commit to a deadline for shedding his army uniform, Mr Ahmed said.

“If all these demands are met, we are ready to back his election as president or we can endorse his presidency.”

Gen Musharraf’s dual role as president and army chief is under intense fire from the six religious-parties alliance as well as ex-prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif’s parties. JI’s offer of a concession is the first sign of a softening by the MMA and comes amid local media reports that intelligence agencies have spent the week trying to woo the JI into a compromise. The nascent seven-month-old parliament, the first since 1999, has come to a standstill over their demands that Gen Musharraf leaves the military, steps down from the presidency and undergoes election.

A senior government aide said the JI’s conditions were impossible to meet. “They are trying to present harder conditions under the garb of concessions,” the aide, requesting anonymity, said.

“It will be easier for Gen Musharraf to give a short timeframe for quitting the army, than to expect a new set of conditions like the imposition of their brand of Sharia to resolve the crisis.”

The parliament has been unable to settle any business for more than two months because of rowdy opposition protests. Opposition leaders have vowed to sabotage the upcoming budget session, set tentatively for June 7, if Gen Musharraf does not agree to their demands.

Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali has postponed indefinitely a scheduled meeting with opposition leaders to discuss Musharraf’s roles as well as his constitutional changes. Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif’s parties have accused PM Jamali of stalling while the government tries to bring the MMA on their side. —AFP

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