December 28, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 4, 1424

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QUETTA, Dec 27: Four opposition parties in Balochistan have decided to boycott President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s address to a joint session of parliament.

The opposition leader in the Balochistan Assembly, Kachkol Ali, told newsmen at the press club here on Saturday that the leaders of the National Party, the Jamhoori Watan Party, the Balochistan National Party and the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party had decided to boycott the address.

However, he said, contact had not been established with the provincial leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party in this regard so far.

He said the parties were of the view that Gen Musharraf had got himself elected as president through an unconstitutional referendum. There was no provision of referendum for the election of president in the Constitution, he said.

“We do not consider Gen Musharraf an elected president,” he said. He said an illegally elected president had no right to speak in parliament.

He said the government had invited the opposition parties in the Balochistan Assembly to attend the president’s address to parliament scheduled on Dec 29.

Replying to a question, he alleged that the leadership of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had deceived the people who voted for them by signing an accord with the government on the Legal Framework Order.