March 17, 2003	Monday	Muharram 13, 1424

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ISLAMABAD March 16: The president and parliamentary leader in the National Assembly of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, has said his party is ready to open dialogue with the opposition parties on all contentious issues, including the Legal Framework Order (LFO), to end the constitutional crisis in the country.

Speaking at a function held in commemoration of prominent journalist, the late Hameed Nizami, at a local hotel on Sunday, the PML (Q) leader admitted that a consensus had been reached on a number of issues, including the 58(2) B, between his party and the MMA in the talks that broke down.

He declared that he would like the talks to resume from where they had stalled.

The function turned into a big stage for the politicians of national stature, both from the government and opposition sides, to discuss the contentious issue of LFO and give proposals for ending the stalemate.

Chaudhry Shujaat said the two sides had agreed to introduce changes in the local government system, and it was decided that the law concerning this system will be excluded from the schedule, allowing the provinces to tackle it.

He appealed to the politicians to draw up their own agenda by forging unity in their ranks to match the army’s agenda which it brings with it whenever it takes over the reins of the country.

On the Iraq question, he declared that his party will not support the US, and will not own up if the government took a position contrary to this.

Chief of the ARD, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, said there could be no compromise on principles. The MMA leadership’s offer to accept Gen Musharraf as elected president provided the latter stepped down as COAS was against the principles of democracy.

He said if any individual was allowed the right to amend the Constitution, then there will be no end to it.

He criticized those elements within the Kashmiri parties in the AJK who had supported recognition of Israel or who had tried to impose a solution of Kashmir issue neither acceptable to the people of Kashmir nor to Pakistan.

The MMA’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, recalled to what extent the talks with the ruling PML (Q) had progressed before they were deadlocked.

He said: “We went to the extent of offering that we will help elect Gen Musharraf as president by parliament provided he surrendered the discretionary powers that he had assumed under the LFO and relinquished the office of COAS.”

He regretted that despite an agreement that Gen Musharraf would announce his retirement from the army in his televised speech, tentatively from March 23, 2003, he (Gen Musharraf) ignored this even when reminded by someone in the course of his speech.

Referring to the standoff on Iraq, he said: “It is a good chance for Pakistan to break the shackles of slavery and express itself on the international forum as is required of it as a forward-looking, self-respecting nation.”

The MMA’s secretary general, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, said the struggle for the restoration of the 1973 Constitution as it stood on October 12, 1999, was a battle for saving the country from disintegration.

He demanded that the amendments and legislative changes thus far made must be brought forth for parliament’s scrutiny and assent or these will carry no weight in the eyes of the law.

He rebutted the claims that the opposition had sabotaged debate on foreign policy, particularly that concerning Iraq, and said it was sabotaged by those who produced copies of controversial version of the Constitution on the day the debate was to start.

The JUI(F) chief said the generals had earned far more public wrath and bad name for their ambitious agenda whenever they grabbed power and were unable to discredit politicians despite all the state propaganda machine at their disposal.

He said the people respected the army as an institution but it were the generals who had tarnished its image.

Pakistan Muslim League (N) chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said the popular sentiments against war on Iraq were clearly emerging after the isolation of the US in the comity of nations.

He claimed that had the government of Pakistan not adopted a wrong policy on Afghanistan, the US would never have been able to destroy that country or dare make advances on Iraq.

Others who attended and spoke were: Federal Minister for Information Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, PML(N) acting president Javed Hashmi, deputy secretary general, MMA, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Prime Minister A&JK, Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan, former federal ministers Sartaj Aziz and Begum Tehmina Daultana.