July 16, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 15, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 15: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali said on Tuesday that talks with the opposition would be held next week, most probably on July 24 or 25.

A seemingly upbeat prime minister, talking to journalists after having met People’s Party Parliamentarians President Makhdoom Amin Fahim at the latter’s farm house residence near Islamabad, said despite the ruling of the National Assembly Speaker that the Legal Framework Order was part of the Constitution, the government would show flexibility on the issue in the forthcoming government-opposition talks.

Makhdoom Fahim was the fourth opposition leader on whom the premier has called in the last 24 hours in what seem to be his fresh efforts to find a solution to the political deadlock.

Earlier on Monday, the Mr Jamali had met Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Vice President Qazi Hussain Ahmed, MMA Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi separately at their respective lodgings.

The prime minister said he was optimistic that some workable solution would be found to allow democracy to function smoothly. Mr Jamali said he was personally approaching the opposition politicians for the sake of the system and it was his earnest desire that some solution was found to end the ongoing dispute on the LFO.

In politics, he said, the doors for dialogue had to be kept open all the time and that was the requirement of democracy too. In a democratic setup one had to either convince the other or get convinced, he further said, and added that the PPP leader expressed his views quite candidly and he expressed his in a similar vein.

Asked if he shared his fear with Makhdoom Fahim that democracy in Pakistan was in danger, the prime minister wondered if he had expressed any such fears. The questioner, however, told him that his statement in this regard had appeared in the press.

FAHIM: Makhdoom Amin Fahim said he stated his party’s position on the LFO in his talks with Mr Jamali. It was the same which the representatives of his party had given in writing to the parliamentary committee constituted earlier by the government to scrutinise the LFO.

Asked why he was holding meetings with the premier after the statement of PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain that the uniform of President Gen Pervez Musharraf was a settled issue, the Makhdoom said in democracy the doors of dialogue were never closed.

He said his party was of the view that all the controversial issues, including leaving of the COAS office by Gen Pervez Musharraf, be decided on the floor of the parliament.

Asked if he had asked the prime minister to release Mr Asif Ali Zardari and withdraw cases against Ms Benazir Bhutto in return for his party’s support to the government, the PPP leader said he did not take up the issue on Tuesday. He, however, hastened to add that the issue was very important for his party, and would be raised at a “later stage”.