LONDON, Sept 7: National Assembly Speaker Chaudhary Amir Hussain has expressed the hope that issues regarding the Legal Framework Order (LFO) will soon be sorted out.

He was speaking at a dinner hosted in his honour by AJK Legislative Assembly Member for Overseas Kashmiris Chaudhry Muhammad Khan here on Saturday at a local hotel.

Cases against Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he said, were filed during the Nawaz Sharif tenure. Both these parties had been working to let down each other during their stint in power, he said.

The speaker said he did not want to give his ruling on the LFO, but when the opposition exerted pressure time and again, he just after his election as speaker ruled that the law was part of the Constitution.

The opposition, he said, had set a bad precedence by moving a no-confidence motion against the speaker following his ruling on the LFO. He said he knew fully well his powers as speaker, but his role was to work as a bridge between the government and the opposition. Despite such attitude by the opposition, he tried to run the House in an impartial way, he said.

It was for the first time, he said, that sitting members of the assembly were saying, they would not allow the House to work. He said blocking the proceedings of the House was a breach of its privilege, and the rules and laws were very clear to deal with such a situation.

He said the present parliament would complete its five-year tenure, but urged the opposition to play its role in strengthening democracy in the country.

The politicians sitting abroad wanted re-elections so that they could put up joint candidates, but it would not happen before five years, he said.

The opposition in the assembly could have contributed to improving the health and education sectors, foreign policies or could give proposals for solving problems of the farmers or on finding some way to give them crops insurance. But the opposition had not played this role, he regretted.

On the Kashmir issue, he reiterated that the government would continue to extend its moral, political and diplomatic support to the struggling people of Jammu and Kashmir.

He categorically stated that there could be no improvement in the relations between Pakistan and India unless the core issue of Kashmir was resolved in line with the aspirations of the Kashmiris.

The speaker said the national economy had improved significantly as was indicated by country’s foreign exchange reserves which had reached $11 billion while the banks were offering loans at an interest rate of just three per cent. The bank loans in the past used to be given after phone calls from the Prime Minister House.

About the problems being faced by overseas Pakistanis with regard to PIA and customs, the speaker said he would take up these problems with the government.

The dinner was attended among others by AJK MLA Syed Shaukat Ali Shah, UK Muslim Conference President Mahmood Riaz, UK All Parties Kashmir Coordination Committee President Haji Nooruddin, Chaudhry Jamil Tabassam, Syed Aga Makhdoom, Chaudhary Mohammad Farooq (vice-president of the Muslim Conference, UK), Mohammad Riaz Butt, Shahid Iqbal, and Sheroz Khan.—APP