KARACHI, May 20: The opposition political circles believe that the government was trying to gain time on LFO to ensure maintenance of a status quo till the passage of the finance bill in the National Assembly.

“The government is interested in maintaining the status quo as long as it feels strong enough to further fragment the opposition, and it seems that talks were approached from that premise by the establishment,” said central information secretary of the PPP, Taj Haider.

He believes the government would take its time in assessing report of the constitutional committee to the prime minister and heads of other component parties and would exploit the “congenial” atmosphere for getting the passage of the budget.

He said that in the past as the opposition had resorted to noisy protests against the LFO in the parliament, the government had conceded a debate on Iraq situation, which finally took the steam out of opposition’s protest balloon.

He felt that if the government was forced to introduce the LFO in the parliament in the form of a bill, discussion on the subject could drag on for as log as it was in the interest of the status quo powers. He said during the talks both sides have stated their respective positions on the contentious issues and it could not be said for certain that they had narrowed down their differences.

But he felt that the government could also bring the LFO to the parliament if it was convinced that it would muster two-third support which can only be possible if the MMA felt the government propositions, amended in the light of the negotiations acceptable to it.

He said it would be a bad thing for a democratic dispensation if the principle of supremacy of the parliament was flouted.

He said so far there were no indications that the Establishment had soften its stand on 58(2) B and election of the president.