April 12, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 11: The country may be heading towards another LFO-like crisis as the caretaker government published copies of the Constitution carrying the amendments made by President Pervez Musharraf under the Nov 3 emergency decree, but did not provide its copies to the new lawmakers.

The cover of the latest edition of the Constitution, a copy of which has been seen by Dawn, describes it as the version “modified up to Feb 29, 2008”. A number of new members of the National Assembly said they had not received any copy of the latest edition while witnesses said they had seen some members of the Assembly secretariat handling old copies of the document carrying the amendments.

Many officers of the National Assembly and the Senate secretariats said they did not know that a new version of the Constitution had been published.

Before taking oath on March 17, members of the ruling coalition announced that they would not accept any amendment in the Constitution made by President Musharraf after proclamation of emergency on Nov 3 of last year. The then speaker, Chaudhry Amir Hussain, said, without explaining, there had been no change in the wording of the oath. The last change in the oath was made in 1985.

Later, when the legislators took oath, they made an addition on their own, affirming that they would only defend the Constitution in its pre-Nov 3 shape.

The latest version of the Constitution contains Articles 270-AAA, 270-B and 270-C – amendments providing indemnity to the president’s actions taken after proclamation of emergency. The most controversial action was the sacking of about 60 judges of superior courts.

A key clause of Article 270-AAA says: “The proclamation of emergency of 3rd November, 2007, all president’s orders, ordinances, chief of army staff orders, including the Provisional Constitution Order No 1, the Oath of Offices (Judges) Order, the amendments made in the Constitution through the Constitution (Amendment) Order of last year, and all other laws made between Nov 3 and the date on which the proclamation of emergency is revoked, both days inclusive, are accordingly affirmed, adopted and declared to have been validly made by the competent authority and notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution shall not be called in question in any court or forum on any ground whatsoever.”

In Nov 2002, members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) – the then opposition parties – had refused to recognise the then Legal Framework Order (LFO) containing amendments made by Gen Pervez Musharraf after seizing power in Oct 1999.

The opposition agitated against the LFO inside and outside the parliament for one year. The LFO later became part of the Constitution and was legitimised by the 17th Constitution Amendment in 2004 when the MMA helped the ruling party get the required two-thirds majority for the purpose.