LAHORE, Dec 29: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement will quit the ruling coalition and join hands with opposition parties if all of them sign an agreement to wage a decisive battle against military interventions and not betray the cause at any juncture, the ethnic organization's chief Altaf Husain said on Wednesday.

Participating by phone in a Meet-the-Press programme of the Lahore Press Club, he said country's problems would remain unsolved if military interventions in political matters were not resisted or the feudal system not rooted out.

"We'll part company with the ruling coalition in protest if all parties agree to struggle against military interventions", Altaf Husain said at the end of his one-hour speech and then in the question-answer session of an equal duration.

Many MQM ministers and leaders, including Dr Farooq Sattar, Safwanullah, Dr Amer Liaquat Husain, Shamim Siddiqui and Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan, were also present at the programme.

Living in self-exile in London for the last 12 years and with no plan to return home in the foreseeable future, Altaf said his party had joined the cabinet only after the Oct 2002 elections which in his words had restored "a little bit of democracy".

Asked to explain whether the existing system was military or civilian in its composition, Mr Husain said: It's "fifty-fifty". A reporter pointed out that on the one hand the MQM chief was talking against the generals' intervention in political matters but on the other it had always sided with the establishment whenever it decided to crush political parties.

Altaf Husain said he was not in favour of individual fights. Citing the example of the MMA, he said it was part of the government and at the same time was talking of a movement against Gen Musharraf's uniform. If the religious alliance wanted to go for a movement, he said, it should first quit the government.

The MQM chief said if his party decided to launch a movement, it would first free up its seats in the coalition. He supported the national reconciliation idea mooted by the government, saying all parties, including those led by former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif, and nationalists should be taken along.

He regretted that while various parties consistently demanded permission for the former premiers to return home, nobody ever made such a demand for him. Warning that difficult times lay ahead for the country, Mr Husain said there was an urgent need for mutual tolerance. He said nobody in the country could be tagged as traitor and complaints and grievances of everybody should be heard.

Defending his decision to get a British passport, the MQM leader said he had to do so because Pakistan's High Commission in London had not issued him the Islamic Republic travel documents despite several requests.

He said he was still without a passport of his own country, possibly because the intelligence agencies were probing various unspecified things against him flashed by propagandists.

He devoted a good part of his speech to explaining the two-nation theory and his idea that the LoC should be accepted as a 'temporary' border till the talks between Pakistan and India led to some solution to the Kashmir dispute. He believed that without the participation of the Kashmiri representatives in talks, the dispute could not be settled.

Mr Husain said he had not opposed the two-nation theory at any stage. Instead, he explained, what he had said in India meant that he would have opposed the partition had he been a player at the time.

He invited the attention of the two-nation theory supporters to the plight of the "stranded Pakistanis" living in the Red Cross camps in Bangladesh since 1971. Making a strong plea for their repatriation to Pakistan, the MQM leader said they could be settled in various parts of the country.

He said it was deplorable that many people had targeted political guns at him without properly understanding his views on the two-nation theory. Equally regrettable, he said, was the fact that such people had not said a word against those responsible for the dismemberment of what was once the biggest Islamic country in the world.

Mr Husain was critical of the previous governments who had developed relations with the United States, antagonizing the defunct Soviet Union. He said it was argued by pro-US elements that because of its geo-strategic location Pakistan would always be valuable to the United States. But he said the situation had changed so drastically that the US had closer ties with New Delhi than with Islamabad. Similarly, he said, while various reports suggested that the US could target Iran, Pakistan and some other countries, he had not seen any report which pointed out any threat to India.

About the post 9/11 policy being pursued by Gen Pervez Musharraf, the MQM chief said the situation would not have been any different even if power had been with Mr Sharif or Benazir Bhutto.

"Was anyone in a position to tell (US president Bush) that we are not with you", he asked the opponents of the present policy. He said it was a right decision of the government that it did not send its troops to Iraq.He declared that the MQM would take an active part in the upcoming local elections.

As for the construction of Kalabagh dam or any other reservoir, he said the government should take any decision after evolving a consensus among all federating units. In response to a question, he said the MQM had decided to spread its organizational structure to other provinces, including Punjab. But, he said, some people had sealed their offices and arrested the organizer appointed for Punjab. Since then, he said, he was not aware of the whereabouts of the organizer.