ISLAMABAD June 15: The combined opposition in the parliament on Sunday decided to move a no-confidence motion against the speaker in the National Assembly besides launching a mass movement against the Legal Framework Order.

The announcement was made at a joint news conference after an emergency meeting attended by the opposition parties.

The no-confidence motion would be handed over to the assembly secretariat in the next couple of days, Hafiz Hussain, a Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader said, adding that the requisition for convening the assembly session would be contemplated after consulting member parties.

Referring to the upcoming foreign visit of President Pervez Musharraf, he said that the opposition had decided to warn the US and the European countries that he (Gen Musharraf) lacked the authority to represent the country as he was not a legitimately elected president and his trip should be deemed to have been undertaken in his capacity as the chief of the army staff.

Earlier, the opposition parties’ meeting discussed the situation arising after the speaker’s ruling and decided to increase pressure on Gen Musharraf to step down as the COAS or resign as the president.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, MMA’s secretary- general Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the meeting had resolved to ask the speaker to voluntarily resign otherwise the opposition would vote him out of office, adding that a speaker was supposed to be neutral custodian of a sovereign parliament.

Referring to the probable public agitation campaign, Maulana Fazl said that the opposition wanted to warn the nation that during his (Gen Musharraf’s) visit to the US, the president would try to prolong his tenure by offering a freeze on the country’s nuclear capability besides promising a crack down on the fundamentalists.

The opposition, he said, had decided to prepare proposals regarding the strategy to mobilise the people in this regard.

When asked to comment if the opposition was justified to boycott the Frontier assembly’s budget session, Maulana Fazl insisted that said there was no justification for such a step as there was no LFO issue in the province.

Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, while denouncing the speaker’s ruling, warned the president that any sellout would be fiercely resisted. He claimed that after Islamabad’s refusal to allow a UN- sponsored inspection of its nuclear sites, Senator Shaukat Aziz had been assigned the job as an unofficial American inspector to visit a sensitive installation, adding that he was likely to present his report during his upcoming Washington visit.

Dismissing the possibility of seeking legal reprieve, the PML leader said that the opposition did not expect justice from the judges who have so far not taken oath under the revived Constitution.

Others who attended the meeting included, Liaqat Baloch of the Jamaat-Islami, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Naveed Qamar of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, Ahsan Iqbal and Siddiqul Farooq of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Mehmud Khan Achakzai of Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Haider Bugti of Jamhoori Watan Party, Rauf Mengal of Balochistan National Party and Akbar S. Babar of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf.