Tensions have been high in Pakistan since Wednesday when the military launched an assault on Islamabad’s Lal Masjid or Red Mosque after its cleric and his armed associates refused to allow an unspecified woman, children and students to come out.

The ensuing gunbattle_ which ended the eight-day seige_ also left 10 soldiers dead.

On Saturday, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, who is also the head of a six-party coalition of Islamic groups, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Forum, told reporters that he had decided to quit Parliament.

I am resigning from the Parliament against the army operation against Lal Masjid,’ he said, adding I will submit my resignation to the Speaker of the National Assembly in the next two or three days.’

Ahmad is one of the top opposition leaders and a vocal critic of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who made this Islamic nation an ally of Washington in the war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America.

Since then, his alliance has been opposing Musharraf and his policies to pressure him to quit as the president.