Islamabad, Sept 21: Outrightly rejecting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's modified constitutional amendments as a "fake package", the Islamist alliance MMA has ruled out any further negotiations with the government, dealing a fatal blow to the General's attempts to end the 11-month old political deadlock. "This is a fake package as it does not contain what the government team had agreed with us in the party heads and technical committee meetings, therefore, we cannot accept it. MMA secretary general Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said.
The package was also rejected by the 15-party Alliance for Restoration of Democracy(ARD) an alliance of mainstream parties- former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto's PPP and Nawaz Sharif's PML-N, according to an English daily. ARD urged MMA to stop negotiations with government and join its ranks to step up agitation against Musharraf.
Firmly ruling out any chance of MMA approving it and stating it "would not negotiate with the government in future," Hafeez announced MMA supreme council would meet on Tuesday to take a decision whether and when a mass campaign has to be launched against government. The modified package, under which Musharraf "agreed in principle" to cut down his powers and submit his controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO) for the approval of the parliament, was presented to MMA two days ago after it was approved by the cabinet.
The Islamist alliance had also been told that Musharraf has rejected its main demand to quit as chief of Army by December 2004, the major bone of contention, which left it with little option but to reject the package. Bureau Report