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LAHORE, Dec 20: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, rejecting allegations that the government was using delaying tactics in solving the Legal Framework Order problem, indicated here on Saturday that a bill of constitutional amendments would be tabled in parliament next week.
Talking to reporters at the National Institute of Public Administration here on Saturday, he said the nation would soon hear a good news on the subject.
Saturday was the MMA’s third day of its campaign against Gen Musharraf, aimed at mounting pressure on the government to settle the dispute which has taken parliament hostage for the past one year.
According to an official source, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q parliamentary party in the Senate is meeting in Islamabad on Monday afternoon to discuss the LFO issue.
The prime minister said the ruling party was in constant touch with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and talks were making progress. He recalled that when the PML-Q president was out of the country, he himself was holding the talks. And now that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was back home, he was leading the government’s negotiating team.
Mr Jamali indicated that legislators belonging to parties other than those in the ruling coalition would also vote for President Gen Musharraf.
“We’ll vote for the president and also get him votes (from other parties),” a smiling prime minister said, without further elaborating the statement when he was asked to comment on the MMA’s categorical statement that the religious alliance’s legislators would not be present in the house at the time of voting.
Replying to a question, he said the Sindh chief minister would not be replaced, as already declared by President Musharraf.
As for the Sindh MPAs meeting with PML-Q chief Shujaat Hussain to seek the ouster of their chief minister, Mr Jamali said everybody was free to meet the ruling party head.
He said President Musharraf had said recently in Ghotki that the Sindh chief minister would not be replaced and that statement amply clarified the government’s policy.
NIPA ADDRESS: Earlier, the prime minister directed the bureaucracy to refuse to sanctify illegal orders of the government.
“For a basic practice you must display the moral courage to say ‘no’ where it is required to be said. Remember, no wrong can actually be committed, if you, the bureaucrats, politely but firmly refuse to sanctify an illegal order by signing the relevant document. That will be the best way to serve your country and protect your own future.”
Mr Jamali said this in his 25-minute address, in part extempore, to the graduation ceremony of the 84th advanced course in public sector management at NIPA.
Governor Khalid Maqbool, Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi and PM’s political secretary Rana Nazir Ahmad Khan were also present on the occasion.
The prime minister told the bureaucracy that they should never seek to please any man at the cost of displeasing Allah.
He said they should try to fall in the category of bureaucrats “who concentrate on finding solutions to serve the people.” Such bureaucrats, he said, “are the movers and the shakers who provide the spine to the civil service.”
Mr Jamali said officials should use their discretionary powers for national, not their personal interests. Later he awarded certificates to the participants in the course.
