LAHORE, Aug 7: Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman has criticized the Supreme Court decision of declaring unconstitutional the Hasba Bill.

He is also critical of the Peshawar corps commander’s statement that some extremists are crossing into Afghanistan to fight against US forces there, saying the task cannot be accomplished by civilians alone.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, the MMA leader said the judges who declared Hasba Bill as in conflict with constitution had not even taken oath under the basic law.

He alleged that earlier army generals had been dissolving assemblies but now courts were being used to make the legislatures ineffective.

“The smaller provinces are being made to realize that they cannot even legislate.”

He said the institution of NAB was allegedly being used to humiliate people and force them to change their loyalties. The ruling PML had been given birth by the institution as many a deserters and jailed people were ministers in the present set-up.

“Why the dual office law which negated the Constitution was not reviewed (by the courts)?” he asked.

Under Article 186/2 the President could seek apex court’s opinion on any law but, he said, it was unclear whether the short order issued on Hasba Bill was its opinion or a ruling as the governor had been debarred from signing the bill.

The verdict was being reviewed and a decision to challenge it before another bench would be taken after the detailed judgment was received, he added.

Criticizing the South Waziristan army operation, Maulana Fazl said the situation there was deteriorating day by day. Religious scholars had an important role in maintaining peace there and the corps commander had repeatedly accepted the fact in the past, he added.

But now the scholars were being defamed (by alleging that extremists were crossing into Afghanistan). “How a civil could transport people in pick-ups and jeeps from Waziristan to Afghanistan?” he asked. “Under whose supervision these people are crossing over to Afghanistan through official gates (on borders)? Under whose supervision people are being brought from Waziristan to give them military training at camps in Mansehra?” he said.

Asked if his assertion meant endorsement of India’s allegations about presence of Jihadi camps in the country, the leader of the opposition said his statement should not be seen in New Delhi’s context. “We should reform ourselves. If we are in favour of Jihadi camps than we should speak for it openly.”

Maulana Fazl criticized the government for expelling foreign students studying at local seminaries, saying the step would be harmful from diplomatic point of view as the countries the students belonged to were also demanding that they should be allowed to complete their studies.

The expulsion would turn the students towards India which was already benefiting from restrictions imposed on seminaries here, he added.

It was also against Gen Musharraf’s condemnation of West’s views regarding the seminaries, he said recalling the President’s recent address to the nation.

He asserted that it was a discrimination against seminaries as foreign students admitted to colleges and universities were not being asked to leave the country. However, he hastened to add that he did not mean that these students too should be expelled.

“I mean that all should be given the right to study.”

He warned of a countrywide protest if seminaries were not allowed to keep foreign students.

The MMA secretary-general said that the seminaries were guarantors of peace in the country and presenting these institutions as dens of terrorists was condemnable.

He warned that the people who would be denied education would go nowhere but to extremism.