KARACHI: MMA seeks end to LFO issue before Saarc moot
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Nov 29: President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s statement on the issue of “Legal Framework Order” for sorting it out and reaching an understanding augurs well to bring about political stability in the country as it is a shift in his previous stand.
These views were expressed by Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, central leader of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and deputy chief of Jamaat-i-Islami.
Talking to Dawn on Friday, he referred to the statement of PML leader S. M. Zafar which also endorsed the change in the attitude of the government towards the LFO issue.
President Musharraf had reportedly told senior journalists that he would exercise his personal influence to reach an understanding on LFO.
The MMA leader said these issues were earlier sorted out in the meeting with Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, and a package was drafted by S M Zafar as a constitutional expert of the government but some of the advisers in the government sabotaged it and created a deadlock.
He said S M Zafar’s efforts to convince the government to table the agreed package in the National Assembly before Dec 17 was in line with our national requirements. Besides, the confrontation was not in the interest of the government from any point of view, he added.
Prof Ghafoor said if the LFO issue is resolved before the SAARC summit in Islamabad, it would enhance the government image and contribute to a successful moot.
Political analysts were of the view that the goodwill gesture extended mutually by leadership of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (extending the period of its ultimatum to one month) and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s response to the ultimatum to go four steps forward had apparently unarmed hawks on both sides of the divide in the parliament.
The MMA ultimatum to the government for tabling the agreed package on LFO in the National Assembly expires on Dec 17.
Before these gestures, the statements made from both sides had virtually threatened the nascent democratic process initiated last year because Prime Minister Jamali and the MMA leadership had made statements which manifested as if the on-going protracted talks on LFO had shattered their nerves and they wanted to test their muscle-power now.
In response to an assertion by the opposition that the MMA was no more prepared to hold further talks on the LFO and it was up to the government to present the agreed package in the National Assembly, Mr Jamali had reportedly stated then: “Let the opposition test its street-power”.
