July 31, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 30: Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali has invited the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League-N to join the government-MMA talks on the Legal Framework Order.

This was stated by PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi while talking to Dawn.

Mr Hashmi said the prime minister first contacted PPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim and then talked to him (Mr Hashmi) on telephone on Tuesday night and asked them to join the ongoing talks between the government and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.

The prime minister, he said, showed his readiness to cancel his schedule for the day if they agreed to meet him on Wednesday morning. The PML-N leader said the prime minister was informed that it would not be possible for them to meet him next morning as they needed time to consult other parties in the ARD.

Mr Hashmi said opposition parties were not against the dialogue process but the agenda for talks should be clear. The prime minister, he said, was hesitant in giving talks’ agenda.

Meanwhile, PPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim called on Makhdoom Javed Hashmi at his suite at the Federal Lodge on Wednesday. The two leaders discussed their conversation with the prime minister and reiterated their stand on the LFO and the president’s uniform.

They expressed satisfaction with their decision to boycott the talks. PPP general secretary Raja Pervez Ashraf was also present during the three-hour-long meeting.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Hashmi said the ARD still believed that there was a consensus with the MMA over the one-point agenda that the LFO could not become part of the Constitution unless it was approved by parliament. However, he said, the ARD could not support the MMA’s stand on the president’s uniform.

The PML-N chief further said the ARD believed that the basic structure of the Constitution could not be altered by this assembly even with a two-thirds majority as this government had a “rigged mandate”.

“Only an assembly elected through free and fair polls has the right to amend the Constitution,” he said, adding the opposition was sitting in the assembly under protest. He said even if the government and the MMA approved the LFO with a two-thirds majority, these amendments would remain “disputed” and bring no stability to the country.