BAHAWALPUR, Feb 22: The ruling party will not be able to secure a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly for the validation of controversial LFO.

This was claimed by PML-N acting president Makhdum Javed Hashmi while talking to newsmen at a workers’ convention at Jajja House here on Saturday. PML-N district president Chaudhry Mumtaz Ahmed Jajja presided the convention.

The acting PML-N president said the ruling party was not in a position to get the two-third majority on any national issue.

He said the PML-N was against the US on the Iraq issue and condemned America’s impending attack on Iraq. He said his party was of the view that Iraq crisis should be resolved peacefully.

Regretting over the callousness, he said the government had still not convened the NA session on the Iraq issue. He said the PML-N had given a call to its workers and people to lodge protest against the US on Feb 28. He said the US attack would be nothing, but to seize the oil wealth of Iraq.

About the differences among parliamentary leaders of different parties on a unanimous opposition leader in NA, he said it had been proposed to have a combined opposition leader and a deputy leader in the national assembly. He said he was hopeful that dialogues going on among MMA, PPP and PML-N on this issue would prove successful.

Turncoats would only be allowed to rejoin the PML-N if they supported the 1973 Constitution in the form it was before Oct 12, 1999, he said.

Criticizing the three-year rule of Gen Pervez Musharraf, he said the foreign policy had secluded Pakistan from rest of the world.

He said the law and order situation had also deteriorated while the fortnightly hike in petroleum prices affected the common man badly.

Former MNAs Iqbal Khakwani, Chaudhry Mumtaz Jajja, Iqbalur Rehman and ex-MPA Samiullah Chaudhry also bitterly condemned the government for its policies.

BOMB HOAX: A bomb hoax created panic on Saturday in the Sabzi Mandi area.