January 7, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 3, 1423

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ISLAMABAD Jan 6: The supreme council of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) in its meeting here on Wednesday will discuss constitutional issues and decide on requisitioning of the National Assembly session for a debate on the LFO besides finalizing allotment of Senate tickets.

Liaqat Baloch, deputy secretary general and head of MMA’s parliamentary coordination committee told Dawn that the alliance will discuss requisitioning of NA session in addition to finalizing names of its candidates for the Senate polls.

The MMA is faced with a bitter controversy over who should be the alliance’s parliamentary leader. The JUI-F has been claiming that the first right is that of Maulana Fazlur Rahman who was a runner-up in the contest for prime minister’s office. The Jamaat-i-Islami wants Qazi Hussain Ahmed to continue working as parliamentary leader of the MMA.

Insiders told this correspondent that the members from JUI-F had advanced the name of Maulana Fazlur Rahman for the Leader of Opposition slot in its Dec 30 parliamentary party meeting but the discussion remained inconclusive and it was decided that the matter would be resolved in the supreme council.

On being asked about the controversy, Baloch said: “It was not a serious issue to bother about.”

When quizzed about ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan’s efforts to win support of all opposition parliamentary groups for the PPP’s Makhdoom Amin Fahim for the LOO post, the MMA leader said that among the three major opposition groups, MMA stood a better chance of securing this office.

About reports that the opposition parliamentary groups were mulling over bringing a no-trust motion against Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, benefiting from the coming into effect the law on floor-crossing, Mr Baloch said: “Such a move is not in our knowledge.”

He, however, said that an early session of the National Assembly was a must for debating all the contentious issues like the LFO and foreign policy, particularly in the face of recent happenings along the Pakistan-Afghanistan borders.

Responding to a question about the reported extension in the age limit for the superior court judges under the LFO, he said: “We insist that unless debated and approved by parliament, no piece of law, including the LFO, can be a part of the Constitution, and we do not admit it has taken effect as such.”

He said the MMA will move a privilege motion against the making of LFO an effective part of the Constitution or any other law taking effect under it.

In the light of Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s statement on the floor of the National Assembly that he intended not to remain an MNA if the house accepted the LFO as part of the 1973 Constitution, he said: “It was a very serious matter which ought to be deliberated in the house.”