LAHORE, Aug 3: The government has declined to provide a copy of the constitutional draft package to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, fearing that its premature disclosure may create misunderstandings.
Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and Pakistan Muslim League-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat HuSsain told the MMA leadership by phone on Sunday that the draft package was being finalized and requested the religious alliance not to seek its copy to “avoid wrong perceptions due to its premature disclosure”, said MMA Deputy Secretary-General Liaquat Baloch.
The draft was to be handed over to the MMA by Saturday evening.
Mr Baloch told Dawn here that the government had assured the alliance that the constitutional package would be discussed in the next parliamentary heads’ meeting to be convened within a couple of days.
The MMA had urged the government to also invite the PPP and the PML-N to the meeting so that the entire parliament could be invited to the discussion on constitutional affairs, he said.
The PML-Q said it had re-opened its links with both the parties, assuring them that the LFO and the president in uniform were constitutional issues and the meeting was meant for resolving these, he added.
Mr Baloch claimed that Chaudhry Shujaat had also denied the statement in which he had said that the LFO and the uniform were settled issues and these would not figure in the meeting.
“Unknown hands were trying to create misunderstandings through issuing such statements on his behalf,” he quoted Mr Shujaat as saying.
The MMA leader said a delegation of the alliance would call on National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain before convening of the session to urge him to declare MMA nominee as the leader of the opposition.
“The indecision about the opposition leader’s slot shows mala fide intentions of the government as opposition parties had never taken any unanimous decision about the post in the past,” Mr Baloch said.
The MMA was the largest opposition party in the house and had every right to see its nominee declared as the leader of opposition, he argued, adding that in the 1973 National Assembly Wali Khan had obtained the post on the basis of his parliamentary group’s strength.
Similar was the case when Benazir Bhutto was made the opposition leader in 1990 and Nawaz Sharif in 1993, he recalled.
AUG 14 RALLY: about the Aug 14 meeting in Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, Mr Baloch, who is also Punjab chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami, said preparations were on for expressing national stand in a big way on Afghan policy, sending of troops to Iraq, freezing of nuclear programme and Kashmir dispute.
He believed that sending of troops to Iraq was the first step in recognizing Israel. Replying to a question, he said the MMA had the first right to hold a public meeting at Liaquat Bagh as it had applied for the purpose before the ARD.
He, however, said MMA would formally invite and welcome the ARD leadership to the meeting.
