KARACHI, 25 November 2004 — Pakistan’s main alliance of Islamic parties demanded yesterday that President Pervez Musharraf quit as army chief by the end of the year, as he has pledged to, and threatened protests if he does not.

Muttaheda Majlis-e-Ammal (MMA) also called for postponement of the National Security Council’s meeting slated for today in Islamabad.

MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazalur Rehman told a press conference here that they have urged the government to address reservations of the alliance before asking him to attend the NSC meeting, in an apparent sign of deepening rift over the highest decision-making body.

The MMA last year helped the government to pass a controversial constitutional amendment that gave sweeping powers to the president and validated decisions taken by his military-led government since an October 1999 coup.

In return, Musharraf promised he would relinquish the powerful post of army chief by the end of this year, but in recent months he has suggested he might retain the post.

“We will formally launch a people’s movement if he violates his promise of resigning from the army,” Maulana Fazalur Rehman, general secretary of the MMA, told reporters.

The protest campaign is unlikely to pose a threat to Musharraf’s rule because pro-Musharraf members have a majority in Parliament and they passed a bill last month allowing him to stay on as army chief beyond 2004.

Musharraf has yet to sign the bill into law.

A major ally in the US-led war on terror, Musharraf has suggested shedding his uniform could undermine his authority in the battle against militancy and his ability to push forward a nascent peace process with India. Military rule was formally ended with the election in 2002 but the MMA said the army should have no role in politics.

“The MMA plans to unite all the opposition leaders on the single issue of the president’s uniform,” Rehman said after a meeting of alliance leaders.

“Our protest is inevitable because the government appears set to violate the agreement,” said Rehman, who is the chief of the pro-Afghan Taleban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.

The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), a grouping of secular parties, has already announced plans to launch a protest campaign in a bid to force Musharraf to quit the army with a rally in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Dec. 5.

Despite ideological differences, the MMA and the ARD leaders are trying to form a united front.

The ARD, in which former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples’ Party is the main component, is generally seen as being closer to Musharraf on several issues including cooperation with the United States and its war on terror. While Western countries have voiced concern over Musharraf’s democratic credentials, criticism has been muted given his role in helping the United States hunt Al-Qaeda members responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The MMA plans to launch its anti-government campaign with a rally in Karachi on Nov. 28, Rehman said.