ISLAMABAD, Aug 10: PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Friday that although the decision to impose emergency had been put off, and not been abandoned, and if imposed at a later stage it would be well within the constitutional domain and he would support it.

He was talking to journalists at the Parliament House here on Friday.

The PML chief said he was among some of the well-wishers of the government who had suggested the imposition of partial emergency to confront challenges of terrorism and extremism the country was facing.

He said the recent suicide attack on Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao in Charsadda and the killing of Chinese nationals in different parts of the country, besides the overall political turmoil were sufficient grounds for taking the extreme step.

He said that had his advice been approved, incidents such as Lal Masjid and suicide bombings which followed it would not have taken place.

The PML president said the president had turned down the advice, saying that such a step would benefit Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif.

When asked for comments on PML-N leader Javed Hashmi’s statement that he had resignation letters of several ruling PML MPs with him, he said: “Let the time come and you will see no-one will desert the party.”

He, however, made it clear that anybody who did not want to be in the party fold was free to leave it.

He told a questioner that the time for a deal with PPP was over and the present assemblies would re-elect Gen Pervez Musharraf as president.