ISLAMABAD, 24 June 2004 — The leader of Pakistan’s opposition said yesterday he would not attend the inaugural meeting of the National Security Council, a body critics fear will further enhance the military’s role in politics.

The NSC, headed by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, meets for the first time today, but Fazlur Rahman, who heads opposition, will not take up his seat.

Fazl said his participation in the NSC, chaired by a “president in uniform”, would go against “national interests”.

“The presence of this institution will not strengthen democracy,” he told a news briefing after a meeting of leaders from the six-party Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal alliance of religious parties which is part of the parliamentary opposition.

The creation of the NSC was approved by Parliament in April, and includes the prime minister, provincial governors and chief ministers, the leader of the parliamentary opposition and senior military officers.

The government contends that the council will have only an advisory role in politics, but the opposition says the military will use it to run the country and override civilian leaders.

“We think the National Security Council will be a parallel or a superior body to the Parliament as long as the president remains in uniform,” Fazl said.

Musharraf promised to quit the army last year under a deal he struck with the MMA to end a standoff that paralyzed Parliament through noisy protests and walkouts. In return the MMA agreed to support his widely criticized proposals for constitutional changes that gave him the power to dissolve Parliament and sack the prime minister.

But in an interview in the online edition of Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Musharraf said he was not bound to honor his agreement after the religious party leaders failed to vote for him as president and support the passage of the NSC through Parliament.

“They backed out on both,” he said. “And so therefore I have no qualms at all as far as my word to them. They have broken their word and so I am under no obligation of pleasing them.”

Fazl said the chief minister of the North West Frontier Province ruled by the MMA would also stay away from the NSC meeting. Observers say Fazl’s boycott is unlikely to seriously hamper the NSC.