Opposition senators not to take oath: LFO row runs deep
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, March 10: Opposition leaders on Monday vowed that their senators-elect would not take oath if it was administered under the constitution as amended by the controversial Legal Framework Order.
Talking to reporters in the National Assembly building, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Liaquat Baloch said opposition parties would not participate in the election for the Senate chairman either.
However, he said, a joint line of action in the matter would be taken by the opposition parties outside the house and added that the decision would be honoured by the MMA.
Answering a question about the government-opposition dialogue on the LFO, the MMA MNA said the government itself was responsible for the current political instability as it had incorporated the LFO in the constitution without first getting it passed by parliament.
He said the government had offered the opposition to settle the issue outside the house.
He said leaders of the ruling coalition had announced during the NA session on Friday that a debate on the LFO would be held in the house when it would meet on Monday. “However, the government backed out and now it wants to raise the Iraq issue instead of discussing the LFO.”
On the occasion, PPP-Parliamentarians MNA Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah pointed out that the government had prepared a document which was presented by the speaker to opposition leaders before the announcement of prorogation of house on Monday.
According to the document, the government requires time to settle the LFO issue outside parliament and therefore, the NA session has been prorogued.
Khurshid Shah said opposition parties had decided that they would not accept even a single clause of the LFO. “Government has to get the entire LFO passed by a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, otherwise it will not be acceptable to the opposition.”
A source in the National Assembly Secretariat told this reporter that the government was ready to adopt a policy of “give and take” and that some of the most controversial clauses in the LFO would be abolished.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said at a press conference in the NA building that opposition parties should accept the LFO as it had already been incorporated in the constitution.
He, however, asked opposition parties to give some time to the government to see how their grievances could be redressed and to what extent the government could go to amend the LFO.
Talking to Dawn, the parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Kunwar Khalid Younas, said: “Not allowing the leader of the house to speak during the session indicates that the opposition is, in fact, disallowing the house proceedings to go on smoothly.”
“What happened in the house was disgusting as it seems that the opposition is not ready both in the house’s business and the foreign policy of the country,” he said.
