ISLAMABAD June 12: The combined opposition on Thursday threatened to turn its protest into a mass protest campaign if contentious issues like Legal Framework Order and excessive presidential powers remained unresolved.

This was stated by opposition leaders while speaking at a press conference here at the Parliament House’s cafeteria after boycotting the National Assembly’s budget session for the third consecutive day.

There was no attempt by the members of the treasury benches to try to convince the opposition to participate in the debate on the finance bill as they walked out of the assembly hall after a brief desk-thumping and slogan-shouting against the LFO and the president.

“We don’t need them to persuade us, we don’t wait for them to persuade us,” MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman told reporters afterwards.

The Combined Opposition grouping, which also includes the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and their smaller regional allies, is also considering to stage sit-ins in the parliament building to modify its protest strategy, other opposition members said.

Leaders of the opposition, including president of the People’s Party Parliamentarians Makhdoom Amin Fahim, stressed upon the ruling coalition government to table the LFO in the parliament, saying failure to do so would result in the launching of protest rallies on a massive scale.

But opposition sources said that the countrywide heat wave was the only factor hindering the opposition from holding of street protests and public rallies that could prove hazardous as mercury had crossed 50 degrees Celsius in parts of the country, causing many deaths.

Without ruling out the possibility of resorting to a court- arrest campaign in this regard, they said that it would be considered at a later stage.

PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim, while expressing the resolve to continue their struggle against constitutional amendments, said that instead of taking part in the budget debate in the parliament, they would continue to brief the print and electronic media about their reservations on various aspects of the budget.

Rejecting the treasury members’ contention that the opposition was shirking away from participating in the budget debate, Mr Fahim said that the only legislation was relevant when it was done for the benefit of the people but if the interest of the people was totally ignored, there was no use of participating in the budget debate.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said President Pervez Musharraf had deliberately pitched the army against the people for the sake of his own interest.

He urged the government to release the Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal workers, who had been arrested for protesting against obscenity in Gujranwala, otherwise the alliance would launch a countrywide court-arrest campaign.

He said he was going to Gujranwala to personally see the situation.

“If the government continues its present dictatorial attitude, our protest will take the shape of a people’s movement,” another MMA leader Liaqat Baloch said without elaborating.

Mr Baloch accused Gen Musharraf of using both the army and the judiciary for his own ends.

Describing Gen Musharraf as being controversial as president, he said that presently, the army was supporting Gen Musharraf despite popular opposition, adding that ignoring the will of the masses and involvement of both the institutions in politics was “dangerous” for the country.

Referring to the opposition’s boycott of the budget debate, he said that resolution of constitutional issues was more important, adding that the opposition would continue its protest until the LFO was brought to the parliament for debate.

Expressing his anxious about the renewed violence in Karachi and Balochistan, he condemned the killing of former Sindh Assembly speaker Raziq Khan, who was killed on Wednesday in Karachi.

Rebutting the prime minister’s statement regarding LFO in which he had said that it would not have remained controversial if the PPP’s Amin Fahim or JUI-F’s Maulana Fazlur Rahman had taken oath as prime minister, saying without any exception, every opposition member would have taken oath under the 1973 constitution.

Referring to the budget priorities, he said that the agriculture sector had been totally ignored, adding that lack of incentives would destroy this sector.

Another PPP leader, Shah Mehmud Qureshi, termed the new budget anti-people, saying it was devised to benefit the country’s elite class.

PML-N leader Ishaq Dar asked the government to explain why a federal minister had visited an out-of-bounds nuclear facility and further elaborate if the government had rolled back or frozen the country’s nuclear programme.

He declined to name the minister concerned but later told reporters the man could be Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz.

In a speech later to the Senate, Mr Aziz assured the house that no harm had been done to the country’s nuclear programme but did not say who had made the trip to the unspecified nuclear site.

“Pakistan’s nuclear security, sovereignty and integrity will never be compromised in any way,” the minister said, and advised house members to get their facts right before levelling such allegations.