ISLAMABAD, May 25: The government-opposition dialogue appears to be heading towards another deadlock over the issue of separation of offices of the president and the Chief of the Army Staff.
The issue is likely to generate a heated debate during a summit meeting of the government-opposition parties called by Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali next week.
Mr Jamali, who has taken the stance that the question of relinquishing one of the two offices should be left to the president, is yet to make up his mind on formally requesting the president to agree to the opposition’s demand.
Moreover, he has also not taken any decision on the MMA’s demand that if he (Jamali) was unable to talk to the president then the opposition should be given the opportunity to directly talk to the president.
Talking to Dawn on Sunday, MMA’s deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch said the combined opposition would chalk out a fresh strategy for protest in the National Assembly during the budget session if differences over changes in the Constitution were not resolved before June 7.
He said the president should himself voluntarily accede to the demand to uphold the supremacy of parliament which was elected under his own stewardship.
“If Gen Musharraf could sack a sitting president (Rafiq Tarar) and take over the presidency before going to Agra for meeting the Indian leadership, it was high time that he proves his sincerity by stepping down as the COAS to save the parliamentary system,” Mr Baloch said.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s House told Dawn on Sunday that no date had been fixed for the summit meeting but it could probably be held on May 27 after the return of the prime minister to the federal capital.
Mr Baloch said there were no differences in the religio-political alliance on the time period over the president’s uniform as it was united in its demand that the president should relinquish his army post by August 14.
The prime minister had been holding meetings with his aides for the last couple of days after he met MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rahman on Friday.
The Maulana, who had promised to take the alliance leadership into confidence, met Liaquat Baloch in Lahore on Saturday and briefed him about the deliberations that took place between him and the prime minister and PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat.
When asked about matters discussed with him by Maulana Fazl, Mr Baloch said: “It was a routine exchange of views and nothing extraordinary came under discussion.”
He said it was not necessary that the prime minister’s meeting with any leader would always carry a punch.
Mr Baloch said the Jamali government must take steps to solve the constitutional problem before June 7 when the budget session of the National Assembly would be convened.
He said the opposition leadership was in touch with each other and would succeed in evolving a unified line of action when the heads of the government-opposition parties met at the Prime Minister’s House.
