June 23, 2003	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 22,1424

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LAHORE, June 22: The ruling coalition will defeat the no-trust motion against the National Assembly speaker with 192 votes and establish to the world that a majority of legislators are supportive of the Legal Framework Order, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed claimed at a news conference here on Sunday.

MMA leader Liaquat Baloch, separately talking to reporters, said the opposition parties would dislodge the speaker with 180 votes against him, eight more than the minimum strength required for the purpose.

The minister predicted that only 142 MNAs would cast their ballots against the speaker which were not sufficient to have the motion carried.

He said the pro-speaker votes in excess of 192 should be presumed to have come from opposition benches, arguing that there were many people on the other side who wanted the assemblies to stay on and complete their constitutional term.

The National Assembly, according to the minister, would take up the motion on Saturday.

The minister held out an assurance that no opposition legislator would be prevented from reaching the Parliament House to exercise his right to vote.

Criticizing the opposition for tabling the motion at a time when President Musharraf would be holding talks with the US president on world affairs, he said the backers of the move were bound to fail in their designs.

Sheikh Rashid said the government was still willing to hold talks with the opposition. But he hastened to add that the gesture should not be mistaken for weakness of the ruling coalition nor that the government would go by their roadmap.

He recalled that the prime minister had already stated that a meeting of the heads of the parties in the constitutional committee could be called to settle differences. But, he regretted, the opposition poisoned the atmosphere by its move against the speaker.

In his opinion, opposition parties were oblivious of the developments about to take place in the region in the coming months. He said the extremist attitude of the religious parties posed a threat to the nuclear installations of the country.

Asked whether the government would implement the steps already agreed upon between the ruling party and the opposition negotiators in their several rounds of talks before they reached a deadlock, Sheikh Rashid said the government alone could not do that.

He said had the MMA cooperated with the PML-Q at the time of the government formation, the slots of deputy prime minister and NA speaker would have gone to the religious parties’ nominees and they would also got seats in cabinet in substantial numbers.

Questioned if he was in a position to hold out an assurance that the cabinet would not be expanded and opposition legislators would not be given development funds for their constituencies till the decision on the no-trust motion was taken by the house, the minister said in the democratic system the minority could not dictate the majority party.

“What’s the future of the assemblies in the present situation?” the minister was asked.

“They should continue to function. They should not be packed up, nor such a step offers any solution to the situation”, Sheikh Rashid said.

The minister said that Gen Musharraf in uniform is similar to Gen Zia who also remained in uniform. If the latter could be accepted in his dual role, the opposition should adopt the same attitude towards Gen Musharraf, he said.

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