ISLAMABAD, June 9: The combined opposition in parliament on Monday announced that it would not resume talks with the government and would continue its protest in parliament unless Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali convened a promised meeting of the heads of government- opposition parliamentary parties.

Speaking at a joint news conference after a meeting of the opposition parties, MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the combined opposition had decided to change the mode of its protest for the budget session. He, however, refused to elaborate on the new mode, saying: “You will be witnessing yourself when the house resumes its proceedings”.

Prominent among those who attended the meeting were MMA president Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani, PPP Parliamentarians president Makhdoom Amin Fahim, PML-N’s acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Tehrik-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Pukhtunkhwa Awami Milli Party president Mehmud Khan Achakzai.

The opposition condemned the government’s ban on the lawyers’ convention, violence against women, interference with the NWFP government’s affairs and maltreatment of the Punjab Assembly members.

In reply to a question, Maulana Fazl said the MMA was in power in the NWFP while it was in opposition at the Centre and added that its stand in Balochistan was the same that LFO was not part of the Constitution.

He said “we are not ready to become hostage like Prime Minister Jamali whose government is being run under the supervision of the army”.

Mr Hashmi said that being in power in the NWFP and Balochistan did not mean in any way that MMA had changed its position as part of the combined opposition at the Centre.

PPP’s Naveed Qamaruzzaman rejected Mr Jamali’s statement that his party had agreed on some points of the LFO.

Asked whether the opposition could engage itself in parleys directly with the army, Maulana Fazl said such a decision would be taken by the three major opposition parties.

Earlier, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy at a meeting decided not to take part in the budget debate in the National Assembly and to continue its protest against LFO inside and outside parliament.

The meeting was presided over by ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan and attended by the heads of all its component parties.

The meeting also decided to formally inform National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain about the formation of the ARD’s parliamentary group, said Izhar Amrohvi, the secretary of the newly-formed group.

Mr Amrohvi said heads of the component parties had signed the document to be handed over to the speaker before the beginning of the session on Tuesday.

Initially, he said, the ARD had planned to give a tough time to the government in getting the budget passed by presenting over 1,000 cut motions. However, he added, now it had been decided that opposition would not move any cut motion and continue its protest in parliament.

The ARD leaders were of the view that the government was not serious in resolving the LFO issue.

Talking to Dawn, PML-N’s Javed Hashmi said the government was preventing parliamentarians from attending the assemblies, journalists from going to the press galleries and lawyers from entering the courts.

“This is nothing but state terrorism,” he remarked.