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ISLAMABAD, April 22: Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s government extended formal invitation on Tuesday to the opposition parties for political dialogue on the constitutional deadlock, including that on the Legal Framework Order (LFO).
While the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) has received the invitation for Friday other major political parties — the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — were expecting invitation anytime, sources said.
Liaquat Baloch, a senior MMA leader, however, told Dawn that the date was extended to April 26 on the request of the PPP leadership who was to hold a meeting with its Chairperson, Ms Benazir Bhutto, in Dubai on April 25.
The adjournment of the National Assembly on Tuesday evening after a brief noisy session, raised the hopes that both sides were willing to open talks on the LFO outside the house.
Earlier, president and parliamentary leader of the PML-Q Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain invited the opposition to discuss the LFO on the floor of the house when it resumed proceedings, and said the treasury benches had come prepared to debate it if the opposition was willing to introduce it as private member’s bill.
However, his voice was drowned in the noise of desk thumping by the opposition.
In between the process of dialogue getting on track, the sources clearly indicated, the Jamali government was trying to engage the opposition in another futile exercise and president’s camp was firm on its stand vis-a-vis president’s COAS uniform and contentious parts of the LFO.
President Gen Pervez Musharraf has, meanwhile, decided not to show any flexibility on the LFO or his army uniform, and firmly expressed it during his meeting with Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain Sunday last.
CHANCE MEETING: Earlier, Mr Jamali had hinted at opening a formal dialogue on Monday following which he had an informal meeting with the PPP Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim at a mutual friend’s residence the same afternoon.
The PPP leader termed the meeting as a ‘chance’ meeting but not a meeting by accident when a newsman suggested as such.
A senior PPP leader, Senator Farhatullah Baber, told Dawn that Mr Jamali in his meeting with Mr Fahim had hinted at extending formal invitation for talks but had not come out with any hope that he was in a position to resolve the issue of the LFO.
Baber expressed his fears that the hawks in the Musharraf camp might sabotage the process as had been happening in the past.
Mr Fahim told a news conference at parliament cafeteria after the adjournment of the National Assembly session on Tuesday that his party was ready to enter into constructive talks with the government provided the entire opposition was invited.
He strongly condemned Gen Musharraf’s tirade in Lahore against the elected parliament, and said it was strange that he (Musharraf) was taking the same assemblies into disrepute which he boasted to have brought into being.
Mr Fahim reiterated the resolve of the combined opposition that to continue its present democratic protest on the floor of the parliament till the time the LFO issue was discussed between the two parties and resolved according to the aspirations of the nation.
He said: “We have one point joint agenda of safeguarding the supremacy of parliament and its inalienable right of amending the constitution, the right which no individual can be empowered to use.”
HASHMI: Earlier, PML-N acting president and parliamentary leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi also confirmed that his party had been alerted to receive an invitation for a political dialogue, adding that premier Jamali in an informal meeting with him on Monday had said he would invite the party formally.
He was too bitter on what he termed the abuses that Gen Musharraf had hurled on the nation and the parliament, terming both as “uncivilised”.
Mr Hashmi said by refusing to speak to the joint parliamentary session, he (President Musharraf) had not only deviated from his duty but had lost the right to be recognised as a legitimate president.
By rejecting the parliament of his own making, he said, the general had undermined the elected house which he boasted to call a graduate house.
