May 22, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19,1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 21: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has decided not to make public its recommendations submitted to the speaker of National Assembly and chairman of 11-member government-opposition committee on controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO).

A senior PPP leader said the document submitted by the party was a public one, however, it would be released with the consent of the party chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, and the PPP president, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, at some proper time.

The PPP document is more comprehensive than those submitted by Muttahidda Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and Pakistan Muslim League-N, he added.

Giving details, he said the eight-page document consisted of four chapters. The first chapter, he said, dealt with the party’s point of view on seven contentious issues in the controversial LFO.

The second chapter is related to Schedule 6 and Article 270AA, which seeks validation of all ordinances, chief executive’s order, president’s orders, notifications, rules, bye-laws and all actions taken or done, he added. He said the party believed that these laws, promulgated after October 12, 1999, were affecting the economic, political and working rights of the ordinary people.

The PPP leader said the third chapter of the document contained some proposals for more amendments required in the Constitution to make it homogeneous.

The last chapter of the document, he said, dealt with those provisions of the LFO like joint electorate and women seats etc. “However, we would support these laws only when these would be presented before parliament for approval,” he said.

He said the drafting of the proposals had been done by Chaudhry Aitezaz Ahsan and Raza Rabbani and it was submitted to the NA speaker when it was approved by a committee, headed by Makhdoom Amin Fahim. The committee comprised Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Farooq Naik, Raza Rabbani and Latif Khoso, he said.

He said the MMA and the PML-N should not have released the texts, as it was binding on all the parties, which took part in the deliberations on the controversial LFO, that they would not disclose their respective recommendations till the time it would be put for discussion before heads of the parties. However, as the MMA and the PML-N had already released the texts, therefore, there was no harm in releasing it now, the PPP leader said.