ISLAMABAD, April 24: The government and opposition parties begin critical parleys on Friday, with both sides affirming tough positions that hardly bode well for an early end to a bitter controversy over the question of sweeping presidential powers.
Political sources said an early breakthrough was not expected, and feared failure could heighten the existing political confrontation.
An ambiguity about the agenda leaves room for Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and his colleagues from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) to try to lead politicians he has invited for the talks into areas they do not want to enter now.
On the other hand, the opposition parties say this is no time to talk about other things and insist they will discuss only the powers assumed by President Pervez Musharraf through the Legal Framework Order (LFO).
But the opposition parties did not seem disappointed by the text of Mr Jamali’s invitation letter that does not specifically mention the LFO and seeks talks “to promote political harmony and strengthen democratic institutions”.
This does not prevent opposition parties from concentrating on the LFO, which they see as a permanent threat to political harmony and democratic institutions, an opposition source said.
The talks are set to begin at 7.30pm on Friday at the prime minister’s house, hours after what is expected to be another noisy sitting of the National Assembly in the morning, and are likely to continue on the next day as well.
A delay in the arrival of invitation letters had kept opposition politicians guessing for at least two days about the agenda and the venue of the meeting as the prime minister had only been telephoning them from his Rojhan Jamali village in Balochistan and telling them that letters were being sent.
A PPP spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, told Dawn the invited party leaders would go into the talks as the combined opposition, which would mean that leaders of the smaller allied parties could also join them.
But it was not yet known if the prime minister had also invited the smaller parties, which were part of an earlier steering committee formed by the opposition for talks with the government.
