September 29, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 16, 1428

PESHAWAR, Sept 28: The opposition in the NWFP Assembly is still undecided over how to go about moving a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani in order to block the dissolution of the House before the presidential polls.

The leader of the opposition in the 124-member House, Shahzada Gastasap, and the provincial general-secretary of the ruling PML, Mushtaq Ghani, said they had discussed the issue with various political forces but were yet to agree upon a strategy to foil the MMA’s planned move to dissolve the assembly on Oct 2.

Shahzada Gastasap said the opposition benches had two options: either move the court or requisition a sitting of the House to table a no-confidence motion against the leader of the house under Article 136 (1) of the Constitution to thwart the MMA’s attempt to dissolve the assembly.

“The problem is that opposition parties in the House are divided after the ANP and the PML-N voiced their support for the MMA’s move,” Mr Gastasap said.

“Opposition parties can employ both options,” he maintained, adding that the next 48 hours were crucial. He said the MMA could not justify the dissolution of the assembly and it would be illegal to prevent lawmakers from exercising their fundamental right.

He said a joint meeting of the opposition members was likely to be convened on Saturday to chalk out a plan to block the MMA’s move.

Mr Ghani said the ruling PML had approached the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and sought its assistance to stop the NWFP Assembly’s dissolution.

“We discussed (the issue) with PPP’s parliamentary leader Abdul Akbar Khan on Thursday, but his (Akbar) response was not positive,” Mr Ghani said. He said the ruling party would finalise its line of action over the next couple of days.

“We have not yet finalised an action plan,” Mr Ghani said.

He said that opposition groups had the required number of members to requisition an assembly meeting. Under the Constitution, the chief minister could advise the governor

for dissolving the assembly

in case of instability or an extraordinary situation in the province.

“But it’s not fair to dissolve the assembly to stop lawmakers from taking part in the presidential election,” he observed, adding that they could challenge this controversial move of the MMA’s in the High Court.