Islamabad: Leader of the Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and chairman of Pakistan's hardline party Jamaat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed has threatened to resign from the National Assembly if the Jamali government accepted President Pervez Musharraf's controversial Constitutional amendments and made them part of 1973 Constitution.

Addressing the National Assembly on December 30 after Jamali won vote of confidence with majority, he said, "At least I will no more remain member of this House if the Legal Framework Order (LFO) was accepted as legitimate part of the Constitution".

The amendments were promulgated by Musharraf ahead of the October general elections as LFO, which was rejected by all the mainstream parties.

Ahmed has asked the National Assembly to unanimously ask Musharraf to resign as Chief of Army in order to give Parliament its due and restore the Constitution without any amendments.

He said no Army officer could become President as he was under oath not to involve himself in active politics while a President must be qualified to become MNA (Member of National Assembly).

"We want that democracy is put on unfettered democratic rails without interference and we also wish to support Jamali government in order to start a new era of Islamic welfare state in which the poor and downtrodden are rehabilitated and the wheel of poverty is reversed," he said.

"There was a big difference between our's and Musharraf's opinion about Constitution as we stand for the restoration of Constitution in its original shape but he was insisting on making LFO its part," Ahmed was quoted as saying by a local daily.

PTI