LAHORE, May 25: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Vice-President Qazi Husain Ahmed has said that there had been no breakthrough in the government-MMA talks on the Legal Framework Order so far.

He was talking to newsmen after the launching ceremony of the Urdu version of Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Muhammad’s book New deal for Asia here on Sunday evening.

Qazi Husain Ahmed said that the committee had met in a pleasant atmosphere but had failed to agree on a formula acceptable to the government as well as the opposition.

He said that a president-in-uniform was the need of the ruling party. It considered itself safe as long as it was being patronized by the president in uniform and considered itself orphaned in case he took off the uniform. The president also required the support of the ruling party.

He said that the MMA had been assuring the rulers that it accepted them as their right to rule as a majority party but it was not ready to reconcile with the idea of a person wearing the Chief of Army Staff uniform and holding the post of the president.

He said that President Pervez Musharraf should hand over the armed forces leadership to any of his trusted men.

He said that he and Maulana Fazlur Rehman had met PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain but he was not in a position to give any assurance about the LFO.

He said that he had neither met Millat Party chief Sardar Farooq Leghari nor received invitation for talks from Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali.