Islamabad: Pakistan's six religious parties' alliance Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has rejected Pervez Musharraf's Constitutional amendments to empower himself and the military as well as his election as President through a referendum this year.

The Central Executive meeting of the MMA which concluded in Karachi on November 14 also decided that it would not support the Legal Framework Order (LFO) issued by Musharraf legalising his referendum and conferring powers to him to dismiss the Parliament.

Without spelling out their stand about tomorrow's (Nov 16) inaugural session of the National Assembly, the MMA which claims to have 67 Members of National Assembly (MNAs), said its principles remained unchanged and it had not yet finalised any deal with any of the major players. It also remained firm on the candidature of its leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman for the post of Prime Minister.

The emergency meeting held at the residence of MMA chief Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani is reported to have examined the formulations proposed by the government with regard to the contentious issues.

Noorani, who received a phone call from Musharraf in the midst of the meeting yesterday also briefed other leaders about his talks with the President.

During negotiations with the pro-government Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) there was no agreement on any clause of the LFO and the matter now would be decided in the National Assembly, he told reporters after the meeting.

PTI