MMA told Jamali urges ‘restraint’ on revival of LFO talks : Consultations completed,
By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD, Oct 27: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Monday personally contacted a top leader of the MMA and told him that the official response to the three queries the alliance had made on the proposed constitutional package will be sent to it after the return home of PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
Mr Shujaat is at present out of the country for medical treatment.
The PM asked the MMA for ‘restraint’ till the return of the PML chief.
Earlier, on his return from the US, the prime minister had sent his emissaries to the MMA requesting them to agree to the resumption of talks on the proposed constitutional package.
Mr Jamali met MMA’s deputy secretary general and a member of the alliance’s negotiating team Liaqat Baloch in the National Assembly on Monday and told him that he was ready to fulfil his promise of returning to the alliance with a ‘positive response’ to the clarifications sought by it.
Mr Baloch, speaking at a joint news conference of the combined opposition in the lower house, said the prime minister told him about his telephonic contact with Chaudhry Shujaat in which he assured that he will be returning home as soon as his medical treatment was over.
The PM also informed Mr Baloch that he had completed deliberations with the concerned persons, including Gen Musharraf, on the three queries and hoped that a solution to the crisis would be found soon.
When asked if it was not yet another ploy of the government to buy time since there was no certainty about early return of the PML leader, Mr Baloch said: “We are also preparing for the planned mass contact movement after Ramazan”.
He said he had made it clear to the prime minister that the government was using delaying tactics which was creating more uncertainty and chaos in the country, and this was not good for the government itself.
He said he will inform the central leadership of the MMA about what had transpired in his meeting with Mr Jamali.
He said the central alliance leaders were already on a mass contact campaign as they had addressed a big public rally in Gwadar and he himself had spoken in Swabi on Sunday.
The MMA leader also used the occasion to castigate the role of the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee chairman for “creating a division among the faithful” on the sighting of Ramazan moon. He asked the federal government to explain to the nation why the Ruet committee failed to fulfil the relevant rule of waiting until 11pm for receiving evidence before making a final announcement. The announcement, he said, was made as early as 7.30pm.
PPP’s Raja Parvez Ashraf regretted that the government was showing no signs of seriousness in ending the constitutional crisis. The nation, he said, was being deliberately divided even on the question of sighting of the moon.
ARD president Javed Hashmi greeted the Supreme Court Bar on election of Justice (retd) Tariq Mahmud as its president and said it was a fitting reward for a man who had chosen to resign rather than hold an unconstitutional presidential referendum for Gen Musharraf.
He said the Supreme Court would remain incomplete quite like parliament, unless its judges took oath under the 1973 Constitution. “Until that happens all their decisions would be infructous,” he remarked.
He said the finance minister owed an answer to the question about keeping $9.50 billion in foreign banks due to which no foreign investment was coming.
