LAHORE, April 20: A ray of hope kindled by the federal cabinet decision that the government would hold talks with all opposition parties to resolve the LFO issue was dimmed by Prime Minister Jamali’s statement that Gen Pervez Musharraf was his ‘boss’ as the PML-N declared on Sunday that it would hold talks directly with President Musharraf.

The ARD president and a spokesman for the Muttahida Majlis-i-Aml immediately supported the contention and a PPP senator said his party would go by any decision to be taken by the joint opposition. PML-N MNAs Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Pervaiz Malik and Ayaz Sadiq said at a news conference that their party was no longer interested in holding talks with a premier who was unable to take any decision on the vital issue of whether or not Gen Musharraf would leave the office of the COAS.

“The military ruler should hold direct and candid talks with the joint opposition,” said Khwaja Saad, who is also provincial secretary-general of his party. He said Gen Musharraf should make his position clear on his powers acquired through the LFO.

Asked in which capacity of Gen Musharraf would the PML-N hold talks with him on constitutional issues as they were more relevant to the prime minister, Saad Rafiq said his party would prefer to reach some agreement with the president to have the country freed.

Talking to Dawn, ARD President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said the PML-N had changed its stance on talks with the prime minister because the PML-Q representatives had failed to get any assurances from Gen Musharraf on the points they had decided with the MMA. He said the joint opposition could still hold talks with the prime minister provided he first established himself as a powerful chief executive. But, he argued, if the powers were to be exercised by Gen Musharraf, then the opposition would be justified in engaging itself with talks with him, rather than the prime minister.

He said there was a dire need for a working relationship between the government and the opposition for the smooth functioning of the system.

Nawabzada reiterated that the demands of opposition parties were fair and must be accepted by the powers that be. PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said his party was in favour of a meaningful and productive dialogue “with a person or authority that can deliver”.

Whether Prime Minister Jamali could deliver or not was being looked into by the PPP at present and some conclusion would be arrived at during the next few days, he said.

In response to a question, Mr Rabbani said his party would like to talk to an elected representative (the prime minister) but doubts arose when he started calling Gen Musharraf his boss.

Holding out an assurance that the PPP would follow the course of action to be decided by the joint opposition, Mr Rabbani said his party was still examining the statement of Mr Jamali to see “how much is in it”.

MMA’s Information Secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi told Dawn that the alliance would have no objection if any of the components of the joint opposition held a separate meeting with Gen Musharraf as they trusted each other.