LAHORE, Oct 4: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) denies that it has been changing its stance on the LFO as was claimed by Gen Pervez Musharraf a couple of days ago.

“Gen Musharraf’s statement shows that his military and civil teams (that have been holding talks with the MMA) are not comprehensively informing him about the facts, thus he is becoming more controversial through his statements,” MMA deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch told a press conference here on Saturday.

Information secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi and Lahore chapter president Mian Maqsood were also present.

Mr Baloch claimed that all but one point of the LFO had been settled during the talks. The last hitch in the agreement was the cut-off date for shedding uniform as part of the constitutional package, Mr Baloch said.

He said that government negotiators had assured them that a positive reply was expected to it when Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali would return from his US visit.

Alleging that government team’s stance used to be different during and after the talks, Mr Baloch said PML-Q chief Shujaat Husain, Senator S.M. Zafar and Tariq Aziz urged them to ignore ‘negative’ statements given by various state functionaries on the talks process.

He said during the last meeting between Prime Minister Jamali and MMA chief Shah Ahmad Noorani, the alliance had sought clarification on three points which had been kept ambiguous in the draft package presented to it. (Copies of the package were also distributed among newsmen on the occasion.)

These points were a clear-cut date for separating president and army chief’s offices, extension to the retirement age of superior courts judges and excluding the police order 2002 and local bodies system from the sixth schedule of the Constitution.

The MMA leader said that the Musharraf’s team was continuously giving the message that religious alliance’s senior leadership should meet the general to have a verbal commitment from him about when he would relinquish the charge of COAS.

He, however, said that any such meeting without reaching an agreement on the issue might result in hostility. He criticized government’s performance both on external and internal fronts and alleged that it had failed to solve problems of the general public and maintain law and order.

He said rifts among government’s ranks were worsening the situation and causing despair among the masses.