ISLAMABAD, July 26: Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Saturday appeared under pressure from both friends and foe before the start of crucial talks with opposition parties set for Sunday to settle a nine-month-old row over the Legal Framework Order (LFO).

Political sources said the prime minister could be putting his position on the line by initiating the new round of talks despite differences within his own party and uncertainty about an outcome.

The situation became critical on Saturday night after more than half of the parliamentary opposition belonging to parties forming the ARD announced a boycott of the talks in the absence of a government clarification about their concerns.

But the MMA was still discussing its stance in the new situation.

Mr Jamali and PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain met President Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi on Saturday in what seemed to be a move to set limits to which the government could go to accommodate the opposition point of view.

Political sources said the talks, due to begin at 11am at the Prime Minister’s House, could be put off if the MMA also follows the ARD hard line.

They said a settlement with the opposition could raise the prime minister’s stature and authority at a time when he faced criticism from some colleagues in his own party.

But they said a feared failure could prolong the political confrontation between the government and opposition parties and weaken Mr Jamali’s position against his critics.

The prime minister reportedly offered to resign in response to criticism from some lawmakers at a meeting of PML-Q central working committee on Thursday that he convened a day before party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was to return from a foreign trip.

Some party members reportedly accused the government of failing to safeguard their unspecified interests and some objected to calling the party meeting in the absence of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who opposes any more talks on what he calls the “settled issues” of LFO, particularly the question of when the president should give up the office of army chief.

The president, who is not directly involved in the talks yet, has promised to be flexible but insists that only he should decide when he should become a civilian president — a position supported by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and many other Musharraf loyalists but rejected by opposition parties.

The opposition parties already suspect the intentions of the government, some of them accusing it of trying to gain time to wear out their stamina after their noisy protests have not allowed any legislative business so far in the 342-seat National Assembly and the 100-seat Senate.

The ARD has threatened to bring its protest campaign against the LFO onto the streets, starting with a public rally planned for the Independence Day on August 14 in Rawalpindi, if the government did not agree to bring the LFO to parliament for approval.

A previous round of talks between the two sides to settle the row ended without result in May after Mr Jamali failed to convene a promised meeting of heads of opposition parties to follow deliberations on the LFO by a joint parliamentary committee of ruling and opposition parties.

But he renewed the offer of talks at a special National Assembly session on July 7 in a tradeoff for opposition’s withdrawal of a no-confidence move against deputy speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqub.