LAHORE, June 3: Opposition parties will resume their protest in both houses of parliament during the budget session, beginning on June 6, as the Jamali government failed to utilize the period between the two sessions to hold talks on the LFO issue to settle the controversy.

Three leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal said at a news conference here on Tuesday a strategy for the protest would be worked out by the opposition parties at meetings to be held in Islamabad on Friday and Saturday.

The MMA and other opposition parties, they said, would also decide a series of joint public meetings in Islamabad and all provincial capitals to inform the electorate directly about the gravity of the constitutional crisis, which plagued almost all previous sessions of the parliament, and indifference of the rulers to find some mutually acceptable solution.

In case the federal government tried to use strong-arm methods, like those resorted to by the Punjab, the opposition would give it a very tough time, they warned.

Those who addressed the news conference were MMA MNA Liaquat Baloch, information secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi and JUI-F information secretary Riaz Durrani.

They said the fact that the prime minister had decided to call parliament’s session without first resolving the constitutional crisis was sufficient to establish that the government was not serious in finding a settlement.

Mr Baloch held Gen Musharraf responsible for the ongoing crisis. However, he made it clear that the general had lost the battle to get his “unconstitutional acts and steps” validated through coercive measures.

He alleged that on various occasions the presidency had done its best to torpedo the government-opposition talks going on for the past six months.

Referring to Gen Musharraf’s US visit, scheduled later this month, Mr Baloch said after the restoration of the democratic institutions it was the prime minister’s prerogative to undertake such trips.

He demanded that the prime minister should take political parties into confidence about the need and purpose of the visit.

Criticizing the federal government for its alleged interference in the NWFP matters, the MMA leaders said the former was transgressing its constitutional limits. They said in case the general took some extreme step against the democratic institutions, opposition parties would hold million-man marches across the country.