ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: The combined opposition on Friday said it would consider extension of the on-going protest in the National Assembly to four provincial assemblies besides looking for other options to enhance pressure on the government for resolution of the LFO issue.

MMA leaders Liaqat Baloch and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed told a joint news conference at the NA Cafeteria after an en bloc walkout from the House on Friday that the Supreme Council of the MMA will meet in a couple of days and consider various options of increasing pressure by extending protest campaign to the four provincial assemblies.

When asked for comment on Chaudhry Shujaat’s statement that the constitutional bill would be presented by the MMA in the Assembly, Liaqat Baloch said: “If this was to be done then what was the use of nine-month-long talks.”

Mr Baloch said that the Treasury benches were bulldozing the House proceedings by ignoring the quorum calls pointed out by the Opposition. “They continue to do business of the House claiming that 87 members are present when actually there were only 78 members when it was pointed out,” the MMA leader claimed.

He alleged that the federal government, under a plot, was trying to create difficulties for the MMA government in the NWFP, asserting that the recent en mass resignations by Union Council Nazims were part of a conspiracy to destabilise the provincial government.

He made it clear that the MMA was not using political dialogue as an instrument of coercion but instead it had opted for it because it was acknowledged universally as the medium for resolving disputes.

PPP Parliamentarians chief Amin Fahim in brief remarks dismissed as wrong a news report in which it was said that Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali had made a telephone call to him recently.

Explaining reason for his long absence from the Assembly proceedings, Mr Fahim said: “I was in Dubai and was trying to sort out my son’s employment problems.”

He, however, declared that the combined Opposition would never accept the LFO as part of the Constitution till it was brought to the House and approved by a two-thirds majority.

Responding to a question about the MMA government-opposition dispute in the NWFP in which the PML-N has also put its weight behind the combined opposition, Mr Javed Hashmi said the provincial government had failed to satisfy the Opposition on the release of development funds.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that it was wrong notion that Gen Musharrraf’s rule had done any good to the MMA as claimed by his spokesman Sheikh Rashid but it was a fact that because of the MMA the country had been saved from what he called the ignominy of sending troops to Iraq.

He reiterated the stand of the MMA that the Lahore talks were the last from its side and it would not enter into the process any more except the party heads’ meeting.

He said the MMA never accepted government team’s demand of four to six weeks and demanded immediate solution to the constitutional crisis to save the country from “chaos.”

He said the MMA believed that the protest on the floor of the House should be continued. It has also chalked out a countrywide mass contact programme to enhance pressure on the government to agree to bring the LFO to the House.

Rauf Mengal of the Balochistan National Party said that the MMA had shown sufficient flexibility to the government in its talks in the interest of democracy but the government was using this for its benefit.

He alleged that the government was using all methods to break the nerves of the Opposition and asserted that a large number of his party worker had been intimidated with threats of arrests.