March 12, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 8, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Mar 11: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Tuesday hinted at expansion of his cabinet after Moharram.

Speaking at a meeting of the PML-Q at his official residence, he urged the opposition to give up policy of confrontation over the Legal Framework Order issue and to resolve the dispute through meaningful dialogue which he said was in the larger interest of the nation.

Mr Jamali flayed what he termed the rowdyism demonstrated by the opposition during the just-concluded assembly session and described it as inconsistent with the established norms of democratic traditions.

He observed that dialogue and discussion were being considered as a universal mode of resolving contentious issues especially in politics, but the opposition was constantly shying away from negotiations over the issue.

Referring to the US-Iraq standoff, the premier assured that his government would accord the highest priority to the national interest while adopting a stance on the issue. He however made it clear that Pakistan was opposed to the aggression against Iraqi people. He hoped that better sense would prevail and some way out would be found to break the impasse.

SHUJAAT: Speaking at the meeting, PML-Q President and its parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said that some members of the lower house with vested interests had sabotaged the important debate on the proposed American war on Iraq.

He said that it was decided to debate the all important international issue of war on Iraq in the assembly, but things took a sorry turn when some members with vested interests star-ted shouting and howling, and disrupted the session and changed the course of debate towards the Legal Framework Order (LFO).

Mr Shujaat said while the Legal Framework Order was a constitutional issue, parliamentarians as representatives of the people required to solve problems of the mas-ses.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said some elements held other parties hostage and shifted the focus of debate as Iraq did not suit them and they wanted to save their skins as they themselves would have come under criticism if the issue had been debated.

The PML-Q leader said that it was decided at an National Assembly committee meeting held before the session that the prime minister would take the house into confidence and express his views on the proposed United States plan of war on Iraq.

He asserted that the opposition displayed unparliamentary and anti-state behaviour which exposed their nefarious designs inside the assembly. Mr Shujaat said the hooliganism displayed and remarks thrown by some senior opposition leaders were disgraceful, unethical and shameful.