May 5, 2003	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 4: The PML-N technical committee has finalized its recommendations on the Legal Framework Order which would be presented to the party’s constitutional committee at its meeting on Tuesday.

The recommendations were finalized at a six-hour-long meeting held at the residence of senator Sadia Abbasi here on Sunday. The meeting was presided over by MNA Sardar Yaqoob Nasir, who is also the central vice-president of the party, and was attended by former MNA Syed Zafar Ali Shah, chief coordinator Ahsan Iqbal, additional secretary-general Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal, president of the PML-N women wing Begum Ishrat Ashraf, senator Sadia Abbasi and information secretary Siddiqul Farooq.

Later, talking to Dawn, Siddiqul Farooq said the technical committee had finalized its recommendations about implications of the LFO on the Constitution and parliamentary system. These recommendations will be put before the party’s constitutional committee, which will meet on Tuesday, he added. Party’s chairman Raja Zafarul Haq will preside over the meeting. Former law minister Khalid Anwer is also expected to give a briefing on the legal aspects of the LFO to the committee members on Tuesday.

Mr Farooq said participants reiterated the party’s stand that the LFO was not part of the Constitution, rather it was against the spirit of the Constitution. He said the LFO had not only disfigured the 1973 Constitution but was also a threat to the provincial autonomy.

Regarding the next round of the government-opposition talks on Monday, he said the party representative, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, had been given guidelines during Saturday’s meeting which was also attended by PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq and acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi.