ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: The second round of talks between the government and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on the Legal Framework Order which was expected to be held on Sunday has been delayed at least for a couple of days, official sources and the MMA leadership said on Saturday.
In a related development the government has also dropped the idea of convening the National Assembly session for the time being.
Asked about the date for the next round of talks, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said: “It could be held any time.”
The minister said since he was not directly involved in the dialogue process he could not say anything about the draft constitutional package which was to have been presented for consideration in the second round of talks.
Meanwhile, talking to Dawn, MMA’s deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch said the government had accepted the MMA’s request and withheld the summary for summoning the National Assembly session on Aug 4.
Mr Baloch said PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had discussed the issue of assembly session with him and MMA parliamentary leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed and informed them that the lower house was not being summoned, and maintained that the government was considering convening the session just to meet the legal requirement of mandatory sittings of the National Assembly.
The sources said Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali also talked to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in Lahore on Friday evening and later instructed the authorities that the summary being sent to the president for summoning the 10th session of the National Assembly be withheld till further orders.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed in his conversation with the government representatives last night also demanded provision of copies of the proposed constitutional draft for studying it before resuming dialogue with the government.
The government side assured Qazi Hussain that the draft constitutional package was ready and its copies would be provided to the MMA leadership by Saturday evening.
Clarifying a point, Mr Baloch said the tenure of President Gen Pervez Musharraf would start from the day he entered the office and not from the day he shed his uniform.
He termed baseless the analysis that Gen Musharraf would retain the president’s office for a total of ten years if the proposed agreement was finalized.
When asked for his comment on the statement of Chaudhry Shujaat that the LFO had become part of the Constitution and the issue of president’s uniform was settled and could not be discussed, the MMA leader said: “It shows differences within the president’s camp as the group which is supporting him did not want parliament to become a supreme body.”
In reply to a question about the extension given to the superior court judges, the MMA
leader said: “There is an opinion that the extension given under the LFO was not correct but a way should be found so that the judges could be relieved without causing them any humiliation.”
Meanwhile, MMA’s deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali had asked for a two-day delay (from Friday to Saturday) in resumption of the government-MMA talks owing to his engagements in Sindh.
Talking to Dawn from Quetta by telephone, the MMA leader expressed surprise over the government’s silence on the issue of convening the second round of talks.
He said Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali was supposed to inaugurate the Saindak project on Wednesday next, but he was not available for the same and now Petroleum Minister Naurez Shakoor would be the chief guest.
