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ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: Deputy Secretary-General of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal Liaquat Baloch has said the government has sought four to six weeks time to complete the remaining process of talks on the Legal Framework Order and president’s uniform.
Talking to Dawn, Mr Baloch said the process would be completed in three stages. In the first stage, the prime minister’s team would sort out differences with MMA parliamentary party heads and finalize a draft package. In the second, the MMA would take other opposition parties into confidence and in the last stage when the two sides having reached an agreement the leadership would meet Gen Musharraf.
Meanwhile, sources close to the government said the much-awaited government-opposition parliamentary heads meeting was expected to be convened next week.
Official sources said Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali had convened a meeting of coalition parliamentary parties’ leaders on Friday (Sept 12) to discuss the decisions taken at the Lahore meeting and finalize the constitutional draft, sources said.
Mr Jamali, the sources said, would also consult his coalition partners during the Friday meeting his upcoming visit to the United States and take them into confidence on the agenda of his talks with President Bush and other US officials.
MMA DEADLINE: The MMA is likely to discuss a proposal regarding giving a deadline to the government for breaking the impasse on the LFO at its meeting next week.
Talking to Dawn, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said the MMA supreme council was expected to meet early next week after the return of its president Senator Allama Shah Ahmed Noorani from abroad to decide whether to close its doors on further negotiations if the government failed to bring the proposed amendment package to parliament within a reasonable time.
He said the alliance would also take a decision on its long-awaited mass mobilization campaign against the alleged delaying tactics adopted by the government in resolving the constitutional crisis.
He said the MMA was also not satisfied with the ARD attitude and had asked them to explain their behind-the-scene contacts with the government for a secret deal which, he feared, would sabotage the entire struggle of the combined opposition.
Liaquat Baloch said he had convened a meeting of the special committee on Friday (Sept 12) which would decide alliance’s mass contact programme for the current month.
Other members of the committee are Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Pir Ijaz Hashmi, Sibtain Kazmi and Maulana Mohammad Yousuf.
The meeting will chalk out a programme for the countrywide tour of central leadership, he maintained.
