September 8, 2003	Monday	Rajab 10, 1424

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QUETTA, Sept 7: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Balochistan, chief Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir said on Sunday that the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy would not accept an agreement between the government and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on the president retaining his army post.

Speaking at a press conference, he said acceptance of a president in uniform would set a wrong precedent which might be exploited by other army generals to impose their will on parliament.

He said the ARD was strongly against endorsing extra-constitutional steps, so it had rejected the Legal Framework Order as a part of the Constitution.

He said the ARD was not ready to accept a military president even for a day and there was a difference of opinion with the MMA on the issue.

The PML-N MNA alleged that President Gen Pervez Musharraf was preparing ground for a unitary form of government whereas the Constitution defined a parliamentary system.

He said Gen Musharraf’s insistence on establishing the National Security Council and keeping discretionary powers under Article 58-2(b) had exposed his future designs.

“The ARD was struggling for the supremacy of parliament and the acceptance of the LFO would negate that principle,” he said and added that a compromise by any party on the issue would discredit it. “We would not commit such a mistake,” he said.

Sardar Nasir urged the government to present the LFO in parliament for approval.

He said President Musharraf’s domestic and foreign policies had failed and his support to the United States for dislodging the Taliban government had made the country’s western border unsafe. He said both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance had become Pakistan’s enemies.

He said the country’s image in the Muslim world had also been damaged. He said the country was suspected by its friends after the abrupt change in its Afghan policy.

He said consensus of the provinces was necessary before the construction of the Kalabagh dam and it was the responsibility of the government to remove the grievances of the local people about the Gwadar port project.