KARACHI, Nov 11: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has said that in the present situation the main issue before the nation is to save the Constitution and all other issues are secondary, including corruption.

Referring to the US war on terrorism, he warned that the ongoing operation in Waziristan, if continued, could turn into a full scale armed conflict, which could prove dangerous for the country.

Mr Khan, flanked by his party leaders Dr Arif Alvi, Jehangir Rehman and others, speaking at a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Tuesday said that the Legal Framework Order (LFO) was the biggest hurdle in functioning of the Parliament. He said the joint opposition, of which his party was also a part, failed to create awareness among the people regarding the implications of accepting the LFO as part of the Constitution.

He said the LFO was a an attempt from back door to transform the Constitution from parliamentary to presidential.

He said that the LFO had made the judiciary subservient to the establishment and turned the Parliament into a rubber stamp. Until the institutions were strengthened, the country could not make progress, he said, adding that without independence of judiciary no foreign investment would be possible in the country, as it was judiciary which gave protection to the foreign capital.

In reply to a question, he said that he could not say when the elections would be held in Pakistan, except that the Parliament would not be able to complete its term, as the Parliament was incomplete without president’s election.

He said that Gen Pervez Musharraf, despite trumpeting devolution, had centralized the powers in his person, including those of foreign policy, fiscal policy, defence of the country to the local government.

Mr Khan, admitting that his decision to support the presidential referendum was wrong, said that the accountability process and claims of democracy had proven false.

Lauding the fiscal measures taken by the State Bank governor, he said efforts had been made to bring efficiency in the capital market and the foreign reserves had also increased to $11 billion, but added that the figures were useless unless common man felt relief.

He said during the last three years unemployment had increased and the poverty had become more widespread in the country, as indicated by the drop in Pakistan’s position on the poverty index from 124 to 145, which was failure of the government.

Earlier, in his outset statement, Imran Khan condemned the government for the July accord of extradition with the US and said this accord was violation of human rights and fundamental rights of the citizens, as it had empowered the government to hand over any citizen to the US without meeting the legal requirement.

The agreement should have been placed before the Parliament for ratification and not made a law through presidential ordinance, he added.