ISLAMABAD, March 20: The parliamentary leader of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Javaid Hashmi, has said that the present international crisis warrants full time army chief in Pakistan.

“The result shown by Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Gen Tauqir Zia proves that generals cannot perform when entrusted with dual duties,” Mr Hashmi said, who is also the acting president of the PML-N.

Talking to reporters at the Parliament House on Wednesday evening, Mr Hashmi said that his party would never give in its stand on the Legal Framework Order (LFO) and that the joint opposition — PPP, MMA and PML-N — was united. Any decision on the LFO would be made only by the steering committee, he added.

However, he was of the view that the government would come on to negotiation on LFO soon.

He said that the PML-N was ready to support Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali provided he articulate the problems of the people and play his role for the supremacy of the parliament.

Either the premier was too innocent or was under intense pressure, because of which he always acted as the mouthpiece for the president instead of defending the people of Pakistan, the PML-N leader said.

He said that the government should act like a representative government of the people instead of performing as the spokesman for the president. “It’s time the prime minister and his cabinet should decide whether to keep the interest of people dear or their perks and privileges,” he observed.

Mr Hashmi criticized the adviser to the prime minister on economic affairs, Shaukat Aziz, alleging that he briefed Mr Jamali on country’s economic situation only 24 hours before the US deadline to Iraq.

He deplored that the adviser should have taken the parliament into confidence about government’s contingency plan and economic repercussions in case of prolonged war against Iraq.

“He is considering members of the parliament as untouchables,” he lamented.

Mr Hashmi said that the government officials were running the affairs of the government like dictators by ignoring the fact that even Zia had failed to mould the party less parliament according to his wishes. “They should remember that people always win in the end,” he said.

When asked whether the parliament would complete its natural term, he said that it was not the parliament which completes four or five years of turn rather it was the leadership which led its tenure even beyond 20 years.