ISLAMABAD, July 19: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali will discuss with President Gen Pervez Musharraf by Monday the current political situation in the country vis-a-vis the ongoing government-opposition efforts to end the impasse over the Legal Framework Order.

Sources close to the president said Gen Musharraf, who would be returning to Islamabad late Saturday night from his Maghreb tour, would discuss with Mr Jamali the issues relating to latter’s proposed July 26 meeting with the heads of the political parties.

The prime minister, they said, would inform the president about some of the ruling party’s “proposed concessions” to be offered to the opposition in return for their cooperation in conducting the proceedings of the parliament without any hassle.

“But Mr Jamali will again be reminded by the president not to accept any pressure over the issue of his uniform and that there was no question of giving a timeframe by Gen Musharraf in this regard,” a source said.

However, the prime minister would be advised to find a way out to avoid a “collapse” of the system and that the president was flexible on the rest of other “contentious” provisions of the LFO.

Mr Jamali, sources said, will also be asked by the president to encourage dialogue with the opposition inside the parliament.

They ruled out the possibility of the present system being scraped or the replacement of the prime minister as some of the local and foreign newspapers had recently indicated.

“There is no threat to the system at least in the foreseeable future,” said a ministerial source.

He said the country’s establishment was certainly “disturbed” over the prolonged confrontation between the government and the opposition but it had not yet decided to bring in a new political arrangement.

An important leader of the Millat Party, Senator Mohammad Ali Durrani, who assisted the prime minister last week during his separate meetings with Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, when contacted, told Dawn that a fresh dialogue with the opposition was expected to relieve some of the current tension between the two sides.

However, he stressed that nothing would come out from the talks in case the opposition continued to insist on seeking timeframe for the doffing of the president.

“Everybody should be very clear that Gen Musharraf has no plans whatsoever to give any firm date for giving up his military uniform,” Senator Durrani said.

When asked what was the point in inviting the heads of the political parties when the government had no intention of conceding on the issue of president’s uniform, he said: “Pakistan and India have their respective strict stands on Kashmir but still they are talking about holding dialogue and this is what the ruling party and its allies want (as regards to the opposition) so that the process of democracy continues unabated,” he replied.

Meanwhile, the sources said Mr Jamali met those 25 members of the National Assembly, who were being appointed as the parliamentary secretaries and told them that his government wanted to hold meaningful dialogue with the opposition but without any “prior condition”.

The prime minister was quoted as having said he was willing to discuss everything with the opposition but it should be very clear that the LFO was now the part of the Constitution which could not be removed in its totality.

“But the prime minister did say that he was ready to adopt a formula of give-and-take to “some extent” to forge better understanding with the opposition, a source said.