Govt to resume talks on LFO: Opposition’s attitude irresponsible: Jamali
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, March 6: The government said on Thursday it would resume talks with opposition parties on the Legal Framework Order but made it clear that it regarded the controversial document containing amendments decreed by President Pervez Musharraf as part of the constitution.
Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali told a meeting of his cabinet on Thursday that Pakistan Muslim League-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain would meet opposition leaders to pick up the dialogue at the point it was given up before the party’s government took office in November, Information and Media Development Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said at a news conference.
But he quoted the prime minister as saying the LFO, which the opposition parties have vowed to throw out, was part of the constitution.
The minister said that maintenance of law and order was the main item before the meeting which was also attended by provincial governors and chief ministers.
The government statement on LFO came a day after opposition parties brought the National Assembly to a standstill by their protests as they rejected the constitution as amended by the LFO and returned its newly supplied copies to the speaker.
Mr Ahmed also quoted Prime Minister Jamali as calling the opposition’s uproar, which forced Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to adjourn the house until Friday morning without any business being conducted, as “undemocratic and irresponsible”.
Chaudhry Shujaat’s team would pick up the talks with opposition leaders from where they were left, he said about the contacts the PML-Q had made initially with Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and later with all major parties, including the People’s Party Parliamentarians.
But it was not clear when the dialogue would resume, though the minister said he was due to meet Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal parliamentary leader and Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed at an unspecified function later on Thursday night.
The PPP, MMA and other opposition parties said after Wednesday’s unprecedented protest that they would not allow the 342-seat house to proceed with its business unless the government agreed to delete the LFO — that gives sweeping powers to the president — from the constitution.
There was no contact between the ruling and opposition parties on Thursday when an opposition source predicted a possible showdown between the two sides.
“Now it is a showdown,” PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Dawn about what he called the government’s “arrogance” in failing to contact the opposition parties. “The government will have to climb down the high horse it has mounted.”
The minister said the government wanted the National Assembly session to proceed but added: “It will not behove them if they (opposition members) create an atmosphere of Mochi Gate.”
CALL FOR PEACE: : Mr Ahmed said the prime minister had directed the provinces to keep the peace during Muharram, but that there would be no bar on protests against a possible US-led war against Iraq provided the organizers did not harm people’s lives and property.
“We do not want destruction of Iraq or death of its people,” a cabinet source quoted the prime minister as saying. “But we also cannot allow the death and destruction of Pakistan.”
It was also decided by the cabinet to ask all members of the National Assembly to submit their schemes under the Tameer-e-Watan Programme without further delay to the local government ministry for vetting and scrutiny by the concerned departments within 20 days.
The cabinet reversed a previous decision to advance clocks by one hour in summer and put them back by one hour in winter.
