May 17, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 16: Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Friday met the chief the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, to persuade him to show flexibility on some contentious points of the Legal Framework Order (LFO).

Talking to newsmen after the meeting, Chaudhry Shujaat said he had discussed a number of issues, including the LFO.

He expressed the hope that the constitutional committee’s meeting on May 19 would have positive talks.

According to the sources, the leaders discussed the contentious aspects of the LFO with particular reference to the president’s election through referendum and his post of army chief.

Chaudhry Shujaat took the ARD chief into confidence on the emerging understanding between the government and the opposition that all amendments, including the LFO, must be presented before parliament.

Nawabzada Nasrullah reiterated what he termed the “known” stance of the ARD and other opposition parties, including the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, on the principle of sovereignty and supremacy of parliament and that all amendments to the Constitution must be brought for its scrutiny and assent.

Asked whether he was asked to show flexibility on the LFO, he said the question was not of flexibility but whether there would be democracy at all.

He said many important issues came under discussion and the president’s army uniform was one of them.

He said: “We have built up a stand on the LFO and other issues concerning democracy after holding and All Parties Conference of representing on all segments of national life that there should be no compromise on the supremacy of federal parliamentary democracy”.

He said Chaudhry Shujaat had expressed the desire that there should be a political settlement of contentious issues. “We have a permanent stand that any amendment to the Constitution must be brought in parliament,” he said.