LAHORE, Dec 6: Top leaders of the PML-Q and the MMA held an unscheduled meeting here on Saturday in the presence of chief ministers of the Punjab and the NWFP to make another effort to resolve the LFO controversy and prevent a likely confrontation between the two parties, which are coalition partners in Balochistan but rivals in Islamabad.
MMA Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had a luncheon meeting with Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.
However, the outcome of the meeting could not be known as the PML-Q leaders were unwilling to say anything beyond a carefully-worded press release and the MMA leaders could not be accessed for comment despite several attempts.
The meeting was significant as it took place despite MMA’s insistence that it would not hold any more talks with the ruling party on the controversial
package of constitutional amendments and that the religious parties alliance would go for an “Oust Musharraf” campaign from Dec 18 if the government failed to bring the package to parliament by then.
“The talks have nothing to do with the Dec 18 deadline nor they are being held under any pressure. These talks are in continuation of the parleys the two sides have already been holding,” the press release said.
The statement said that the MMA-PML coalition had been working satisfactorily for the past one year and the Centre had never interfered with the NWFP government during this period.
This situation, the statement pointed out, was quite different from the bitter confrontation the country had witnessed when Ms Benazir Bhutto was the prime minister and Mian Nawaz Sharif headed the Punjab government.
The MMA, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain alleged, was being blackmailed by the PPP and the PML-N. On the one hand the PPP was branding the NWFP government extremist but on the other both the opposition parties were trying to use the MMA for their own interests.
The PML-Q chief said the democratic system was getting stronger by the day but the statements being issued by opposition parties could damage the entire system.
MMA leader Liaquat Baloch, one of the negotiators who had prepared a draft constitutional package, said on Saturday the ruling party should bring the mutually agreed draft to parliament without linking its introduction with the religious parties support to President Musharraf for the office of the president.
He said when the MMA was facilitating Gen Musharraf to become the president without strictly following the constitutional procedure, the ruling party should not insist that the religious parties must vote for the general.
He indicated that the PML-Q wanted the MMA to vote for the President in the NWFP and Balochistan in particular, provinces where the party did not have even simple majority. However, Mr Baloch said the government should not attach strings with the bill and take steps which could make the situation more conducive.
