ISLAMABAD, July 22 Kyodo Presiden...

ISLAMABAD, July 22 Kyodo

President Gen Pervez Musharraf assured religious parties Monday that Pakistan would remain an Islamic state and dismissed charges that he was trying to make it secular, a spokesman of religious parties said.

Spokesman Shahid Shamsi of Moteheda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of religious parties, told reporters after a meeting of an MMA delegation with Musharraf that Musharraf categorically denied charges that he was trying to make Pakistan a secular state.

Musharraf was quot as saying Pakistan was an Islamic state and no carcass would be allowed to restrain with its Islamic character.

Musharraf also assured the religious parties that he would hand across power to MMA if it wins in the Oct 10 general elections.

MMA leaders have accused Musharraf of pursuing a U agenda and set forthed apprehensions that in case religious parties won a majority in the October elections, they would not be allowed to form a government

The MMA delegation that met Musharraf comprised of Kazi Hussain Ahmad of Jamat-e-Islami, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman of Jamiat-ulema-Islam (JUI), Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani of Jamiat-ulema-Pakistan (JUP) Sami-ul-Haq of a splinter cluster of JUI, Sajid Mir of Sunni Tehrik, and Sajid Naqvi of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqah-Jafferia (TNFJ)

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