May 2, 2003	Friday	Safar 29, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 1: Pakistan Muslim League (Q) President and its parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Thursday pulled himself out of the joint government-opposition negotiation committee as its chairman.

He said his decision was aimed at removing the objection of the opposition about his nomination as the committee chief. He said he will not be part of the joint committee and Senator S.M. Zafar will represent the party on it, while the prime minister himself will preside over its proceedings.

His decision surprised many but it stunned Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali the most, who was informed about it immediately after his return from Karachi.

The first meeting of the committee is likely to take place at Parliament House on Friday morning, the opposition sources said.

There was no official reaction nor any indication whether Mr Jamali will shoulder the burden of presiding over lengthy proceedings of the committee.

Talking to the electronic media representatives, and later to a select group of newsmen, Mr Shujaat said he was pulling himself out of the committee in order to give Prime Minister Jamali a chance to chair the committee meetings to reach a consensus on constitutional issues.

He said: “Some elements are conspiring to fail the parleys between the government and the opposition but they will not be successful in their motive, and the talks will surely reach a positive conclusion.”

He added: “We should not make anything an issue of ego and should be ready to offer sacrifices for the national interest.”

Mr Shujaat, it may be recalled, was nominated as the chairman of the government-opposition committee by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as his representative to conduct its proceedings.

Meanwhile, PPP’s Makhdoom Amin Fahim and MMA’s Liaqat Baloch and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed have welcomed the decision of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Baloch said “in my opinion” the announcement of appointing Chaudhry Shujaat as chairman of the committee was uncalled for, and the decision of PML leader was politically correct.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said: “We had declared that we will not participate in the proceeding of the committee if it was presided over by Chaudhry Shujaat.”

He described Chaudhry Shujaat’s decision as courageous one, saying it indicated that the ruling party leader was serious in the success of the opposition-government dialogue.

Replying to a query, Chaudhry Shujaat said the agenda for the talks was resolution of the issue of Legal Framework Order (LFO).

He said the talks will focus on the seven points of contention which the combined opposition had identified in the first round of parleys.

He said since some elements had objected to his becoming chairman of the committee for being a party president, he had decided to withdraw and let the prime minister do the job. The objection against him, he claimed, was designed to sabotage the talks.

He said his position as chairman of the committee was questioned by those within the country, and not by the leaders sitting abroad.

To a query, he said as president of PML(Q) he would still desire that the party had more representation in the federal cabinet.

He said that some opposition parties were objecting to his chairmanship on the grounds that since the reports of the committee will ultimately go to the respective parties it was not becoming that a party head should conduct its proceedings.

He regretted that some elements in the PPP were trying to sabotage the process of dialogue and wanted to create a deadlock. “This is evident from their statements,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, the acting president and parliamentary leader of PML(N), refuted reports that Chaudhry Nisar had withdrawn himself from the committee membership.

He said Chaudhry Nisar was still the party nominee and there was no change.

In the meantime, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who had resigned as the joint committee chairman earlier in the day, visited Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali in the evening soon after the latter’s arrival from Karachi.

According to the sources, the PML(Q) chief tried to persuade the PM to himself preside over the proceedings of the highly important parleys between the government and the combined opposition.

Meanwhile, a section of the opposition side said Prime Minister Jamali will participate in the joint committee meeting as an eleventh member, and his position will not be one of chairman.

MMA’s Hafiz Hussain Ahmed told reporters that no decision was taken that the prime minister or his nominee will chair the proceedings but it was agreed that he will also be a member of the committee and attend its proceedings.

The committee will meet on a daily basis till May 11 when it is expected to finalize its draft of constitutional package.

With the exit of Chaudhry Shujaat, Prime Minister Jamali himself is likely to preside over the committee proceedings, official sources said.

Earlier, it was erroneously reported that the proceedings will start from Monday onward on a daily basis.

The prime minister, who returned to the federal capital after a two-day visit of Karachi, held discussions with his close aides on the situation created by Chaudhry Shujaat’s withdrawal.

Earlier, a proposal that the joint negotiations committee should meet at the Parliament House was mooted by the representatives of the opposition parties during the parliamentary advisory committee meeting on Wednesday which was accepted by Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a member of the committee, told Dawn that the first job of the committee would be to sort out and sift those points of the LFO on which all sides agreed. In the second phase, those points will be summarized on which the official parties and the MMA had concurred in earlier meetings.

In the third phase, he said a comprehensive draft will be readied on which all the parties in the joint committee will have unanimity of views, which ultimately be put before parliament for debate and assent by a two-third majority.

Liaqat Baloch, the other MMA member on the committee, said: “On the first day, rules and procedure of the committee proceedings, its agenda and working hours, etc., will be decided.”