March 19, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 15, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 18: Opposition members raised the LFO issue again in the National Assembly on Tuesday, making it clear that it had not compromised its stand on the package of controversial constitutional amendments.

One by one the opposition leaders invited the attention of Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to the Legal Framework Order on points of order but they did so by showing restraint instead of resorting to protest or creating pandemonium.

However, the house witnessed a brief uproar when Wasi Zafar of the PML-Q, raising the issue of killing of six Pakistanis in Macedonia, accused the opposition members of staging a tamasha in the house. This agitated the opposition but the speaker intervened to control the situation.

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad was the first to say in unequivocal terms that the opposition’s stand on the LFO was unchanged. He said the way the last session was prorogued demanded patience from the treasury benches.

Liaquat Baloch, an MMA member, said the opposition’s stand on the LFO was based on Articles 238 and 239 according to which parliament alone can accept or reject any constitutional amendment and that too with a two-thirds majority.

He reiterated the joint opposition’s stand that the LFO was unconstitutional and that opposition to it was still there.

Mr Baloch hoped that negotiations on the LFO between the government and the opposition would continue so that an agreement could be reached. If the LFO was imposed without such an agreement then opposition reserved the right to resume its agitation, he warned.

Naveed Qamar of the PPP alleged that the government was, in fact, buying time. He said unless the LFO was discussed threadbare by the house everything else would be meaningless. Nothing was more important than the sovereignty of the house, he emphasized.

Mr Qamar pointed out that the last session was adjourned with an assurance that the government would arrange a dialogue with the opposition to find a solution to the deadlock and added that even a steering committee had been formed for the purpose to which the opposition members had given their proposals.

He said the debate on Iraq crisis reflected large-heartedness on the part of the opposition which had allowed the discussion. However, he pointed out, this should not be considered as a weakness of the opposition which had reservations on the fundamentals of the LFO.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the parliamentary leader of the PML-N, said the opposition wanted to see smooth proceedings in the house under a policy of ‘forgive and forget’. Otherwise, he said, the way the politicians were denounced and a vilification campaign had been launched during the last three years was shameful. “We are cooperating only to give democracy a chance and to let it flourish.”

He said whatever had been done during the last three years under the Provisional Constitutional Order should not be repeated under the LFO.

He said the purpose of parliament and the civilian cabinet was to restore democracy in its true spirit but deplored that right from cricket to hockey to Wapda and the presidency, army generals were running the affairs.

He offered that the opposition would go 10 steps ahead if the government took one step forward to restore real democracy and to serve people.

Mahmood Khan Achakzai alleged that army generals had become fond of enjoying the power. However, he said, politicians would not let this happen and added that the 1973 Constitution suggested how amendments were brought to it.

The speaker thanked the members for letting the proceedings to go on smoothly and said both opposition and treasury benches should take the dialogue on the LFO seriously.