a ISLAMABAD Dec 19: PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani has termed the President Musharraf’s offer to show flexibility on the Kashmir issue a disastrous shift from the position that Pakistan had held on the issue during the last 56 years.

He was speaking at a joint news conference of the combined opposition on Friday after walking out en bloc from the upper house.

The LFO, Mr Rabbani said, had badly bruised the Constitution and the real concern was that the definition of Pakistan as given in the 1973 Constitution was being undermined.

He expressed the fear that the country was being pushed back into the era of one-unit “by snatching away provincial autonomy” under various pretexts.

He said most of the past governments at the centre had treated the Sindh province as a colony and at present a minority government was being patronized there.

Similarly, he alleged that police deployment to replace levies in Balochistan was also being done “to subjugate the province” by the central government.

He condemned what he called the “maltreatment” of ARD president Javed Hashmi in jail and described his trial as “a means to cover up the false case” that was established against him.

He called upon the NA speaker to summon Mr Hashmi to his chamber and get a firsthand information about the administration’s treatment of him.

Commenting on a challenge thrown by NRB chairman Daniyal Aziz for a live debate on the status of the local government system with him, he said he (Raza) did not consider Mr Aziz his equal in political stature but he was ready to take part in live televised debate with prime minister Jamali.

He alleged that whatever steps Gen Musharraf was taking, including those of normalization with India, were to appease the US. He said before 9/11, Gen Musharraf used to accuse those parties which differed with him on the methods to tackle the Kashmir issue of being security risk.

Asfandyar Wali Khan of Awami National Party (ANP) challenged the government to allow open trial of Mr Hashmi so that the world could judge on its own the merit of the case “engineered against him.”

Prof Ibrahim Khan of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on the occasion rejected outright reports that the alliance had in any way assured the government that its provincial assembly members would give vote of confidence to Gen Musharraf.

He said Gen Musharraf had bypassed parliament by offering on his own to give up Pakistan’s stand on UN resolutions on Kashmir and had even ignored the Jamali government as he did not consult the prime minister before issuing the statement. “He perhaps considers himself as being above the law.” He demanded of the government to bring the issue of dialogue with India on Kashmir to parliament.

He said it was condemnable that Pakistan’s COAS was trying to reverse national stand on Kashmir instead of projecting Pakistan’s case in international forums.

He said: “In our view, Gen Musharraf was not a legitimately elected president and that he had usurped power.”

Raza Ahmed Raza of PMAP termed the proposed constitutional package “disastrous” for the federation and asked the MMA not to compromise on it. He alleged that under a plan the provincial autonomy was being usurped by the centre which will strengthen the forces of resistance.

Ishaq Dar of PML-N said: “It appears that the military-led government has agreed to the US demand of a compromise on Kashmir like it had agreed on freezing the nuclear programme.”

The combined opposition also protested against what was termed the government’s “meaningless exercise” in engaging the MMA in talks “in order, perhaps, to keep delaying the process of presentation of the proposed constitutional amendment in parliament.”