ISLAMABAD, June 7: In between fresh protest against the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO) in the National Assembly and the Senate, Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Saturday offered more talks with the opposition parties to settle the row that has reached a deadlock in parliament.
But the offer, made in a brief speech to the Senate, was greeted with opposition suspicions and charges that the prime minister had tried to mislead the nation.
There was also some confusion about the issue as the premier’s pledge to keep the process of dialogue open seemed to run contrary to an earlier remark by him to reporters that he saw no point in calling a meeting of the opposition leaders because of their allegedly negative attitude.
The opposition first kept up an uproar throughout the finance minister’s budget speech in the National Assembly. Then the protest shifted to the upper house where Mr Jamali made the offer of more talks after opposition senators refused to entertain the Finance Bill under the LFO.
The opposition parties vowed to continue their protest in both the houses which were adjourned until Tuesday.
Both the houses of parliament met amidst tight security around the parliament building, with the approaches controlled by multiple police barricades that provoked protests from even parliamentarians and newsmen.
The opposition senators said they were not against the principle of discussing budget in the Senate, but were opposed to the process under the LFO.
The prime minister rose to reply to the opposition complaints that he had failed to convene the promised meeting with the leaders of opposition parties to discuss recommendations made by the parliamentary committee on the LFO.
Mr Jamali denied the charge, saying it was in pursuance of the commitment that he had held meetings with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) after the committee recommendations, and that the MMA leaders had told him that they would take care of other parties in the combined opposition, which includes the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-N and some smaller groups.
The premier said he did not know as to why the leaders of the six-party alliance had failed to take care of other opposition parties.
“I am ready to talk again,” the prime minister said without explaining whether he wanted to talk with the MMA alone.
PPP Senator Safdar Abbasi immediately accused the prime minister of having “tried to mislead the nation” and an MMA leader said the alliance had not given any assurance to Mr Jamali that it would be responsible for other opposition parties.
“This was an unguarded statement by the prime minister that can create unnecessary misunderstanding,” Maulana Samiul Haq, leader of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, told reporters.
The prime minister’s complaint of the alleged one-sided reporting of opposition claims sparked a walkout by most reporters in the press gallery.
Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro did not agree with the opposition arguments against entertaining the Finance Bill and allowed the finance minister to formally place the document on the table of the Senate amidst the chanting of slogans of “No LFO no” and “go Musharraf go” before the upper house was adjourned until 10am on Tuesday.
Earlier, in the National Assembly, the finance minister had only about two minutes of uninterrupted speech while the opposition members were attending their own meeting elsewhere. But they began slogan-chanting and desk-thumping as soon as they entered the house. The budget documents placed on their desks came in handy for the desk-thumping.
The treasury benches tried to counter the opposition by the desk-thumping to cheer the finance minister whenever he said something significant about the performance of the government. But this only helped the opposition noise that continued until Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain adjourned the house until 5.30pm on Tuesday.
JAMALI’S PRESS TALK: Speaking to reporters after the budget presentation in the National Assembly, Mr Jamali said the opposition’s negative attitude would harm the democratic system, and added that he had dropped the idea of meeting opposition parties’ heads to discuss the LFO.
He said his government had done its level best to present a people-friendly budget, and that this was the “best we could do in six months”.
Asked if he approved of the opposition mode of protest, the premier said their attitude was not positive and added: “This is a bad thing, but it is their privilege to decide about what they want to do.”
A decrease in the defence budget in real terms should be appreciated and not be criticized, he said.
Asked whether the decrease was meant to please India and was one of the confidence building measures (CBMs), the prime minister said it was not CBM. There would be no measure to compromise Pakistan’s ability to defend itself, he said.
Asked why he had not convened the promised meeting of the opposition party heads, Mr Jamali said he came to the conclusion after a secret meeting with some opposition party leaders that there was no point in calling such a meeting. “Their attitude is not positive.”
