Jamali begins consultations with allies: Joint opposition to draw strategy tomorrow
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD, May 24: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali on Saturday began consultations with his coalition partners on the Legal Framework Order and the president’s uniform.
President of Millat Party and parliamentary leader of the six-party National Alliance (NA) Farooq Leghari was the first who called on the prime minister.
The two leaders discussed a strategy for the upcoming summit meeting of the government-opposition parties which would be held next week.
According to an official statement, the Millat Party chief appreciated the prime minister’s efforts for developing far-flung areas with special reference to his recent visit to Gwadar and other areas of Balochistan and Sindh.
The prime minister sought proposals from the former president for incorporating in the final report which would take the shape of a constitutional package. They also discussed the issue of separation of the offices of the president and the COAS.
PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain also called on the prime minister in the evening and discussed with him various issues, including the possibility of a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.
The prime minister is expected to hold meetings with other coalition partners in the next couple of days before announcing a date for a meeting of the heads of government-opposition parliamentary parties.
Mr Jamali announced on Friday that the heads of only those parties would be invited to the summit meeting who were represented in the joint constitutional committee on the LFO.
President Pervez Musharraf is also reportedly in touch with his legal and political advisers and has discussed with them the issue of his relinquishing the army uniform.
OPPOSITION MEETING: The top leadership of the combined opposition in the National Assembly will meet in Islamabad on Monday in an attempt to evolve a unified approach on talks with the ruling PML-Q on the joint government-opposition committee report.
Parliamentary leader of the People’s Party Parliamentarians Makhdoom Amin Fahim has invited the leadership of the MMA, the PML-N and his own party for dinner at his home to discuss a joint strategy before going into talks with the government side.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the MMA supreme council has been convened for Tuesday to finalize a strategy for the summit meeting of the government-opposition parties which would probably be held on the same day, deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed told Dawn on Saturday.
An effort is being made to bring the two extreme viewpoints within the religio-political alliance leadership closer on the issue of the president’s uniform. MMA vice-president Qazi Hussain Ahmed is against giving the president time beyond August 14 to relinquish the office of the COAS, while some other leaders, including Maulana Fazlur Rahman are in favour of greater flexibility, according to sources.
The sources said a major objective of the prime minister’s separate meeting on Friday with Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who leads the majority party (JUI-F) in the MMA, was to ask him to bridge this big difference on the uniform issue within the alliance.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman was reported to have promised that he would take Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani into confidence on the matter.
While the Musharraf camp stresses giving the president at least two years for separation of the offices of the president and the COAS, the JUI-F leadership is said to have agreed to give one year for the purpose.
No final date has yet been fixed for the summit meeting of the government-opposition parties. Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman would take the leadership into confidence on points discussed during the two high profile meetings — first with PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and the second with Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and the PML-Q president. On both occasions, the Maulana is said to have been requested by the leadership of the ruling alliance to show flexibility on the issue of the president’s uniform.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who has recently returned from a visit to Iran, will also submit his report to Tuesday’s supreme council meeting of the MMA, Hafiz Hussain told this reporter.
He said MMA president Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani had returned from his foreign tour and contacted him telephonically to fix a date for meeting.
When asked whether the MMA had come any closer to the government side after the meeting between the prime minister and Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Hafiz Hussain said that no such thing had happened.
He, however, termed it as a breakthrough that the prime minister and the ruling party chief both had agreed with the opposition’s demand that all legislation, including the LFO, ought to be presented in parliament for approval.
He said the MMA would provide the required numerical strength to the government when the stage of validation of Gen Musharraf’s action in the last three-years would come up in parliament for indemnification, but it would not join the Jamali government and would prefer to remain in the opposition.
And even this extent of cooperation with the government would be extended only if the latter accepted the opposition’s demands on contentious issues, he stressed.
