ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: Central leaders of Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Liaquat Baloch on Tuesday called on Pakistan Muslim League-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain at his residence and agreed to continue talks on the constitutional package to be presented before the National Assembly to resolve the LFO crisis.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Ahmed said the next meeting between the two-member technical committee, nominated by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to draft the constitutional package, and the religious alliance would be held in Lahore on Wednesday.

Senator S.M. Zafar and lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada have been given the task to finalize the constitutional package in consultation with the MMA to resolve the LFO controversy. Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Liaquat Baloch are representing the MMA in the talks with the government’s constitutional experts.

Commenting on Gen Pervez Musharraf’s statement in Hyderabad in which he stated that if the LFO was scrapped from the Constitution then the assemblies would become illegal, Mr Ahmed said the assemblies had come into existence as a result of the October elections which were held under the Election Order 2002 and the Constitution was suspended at that time. He said Gen Musharraf should know that no changes could be made in the Constitution when it was suspended.

Earlier, talking to a group of newsmen at the parliament house, Mr Baloch said they had told Chaudhry Shujaat that the MMA would continue its protest inside the National Assembly till the finalization of the draft of the package and there would be no relaxation in it.

Mr Baloch said that they had also asked Chaudhry Shujaat to ensure the presence of Sharifuddin Pirzada in the Wednesday’s talks as he was not present in the first meeting.

He said it had been made clear to the PML-Q chief that the LFO was not a part of the Constitution and there was no way out for the government except to bring it to the parliament. Mr Baloch said the PML-Q chief had been categorically told that the National Security Council was unacceptable to the MMA.

Mr Ahmed accused Gen Musharraf of intentionally trying to develop a crisis in the country before leaving for the US next month. “Gen Musharraf did the same thing before visiting Camp David,” he added. He said it was irony that a person who could not address his country’s National Assembly was going to address the UN General Assembly. He said when Gen Zia could bring his constitutional amendments to the National Assembly then why Gen Musharraf could not do so.

Both the MMA leaders, however, were not very hopeful of the success of the talks. “It depends upon the attitude of the government and Gen Musharraf”, they said. They advised Gen Musharraf to end his “stubbornness” on the issue of uniform “in the best interest of the nation.” They also made it clear that the package without mentioning cut-off date for the removal of president’s uniform would not be acceptable to the MMA.

They said the main focus of the technical committee was on the same seven contentious points which were identified during the meeting of constitutional committee comprising representatives of the government and opposition parties.

Talking about the assembly’s proceedings, Mr Ahmed regretted that the government failed to maintain quorum in the house despite the fact that the session had been summoned by the government itself.

He said the opposition was not responsible for lack of quorum as the government had refused to convene the session on the requisition of the MMA.

He said the MMA had given a 26-point agenda to the government for the ongoing assembly session. If the government wants smooth proceedings in the lower house, then it should bring the opposition’s agenda for discussion. The first point of the agenda, he said, was that the government should declare on floor of the house that the LFO was not a part of the Constitution.

The opposition, he said, had decided that it would not allow the government to run the assembly according to its own agenda.