LAHORE, Aug 12: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has decided that further talks, if any, on the LFO and uniform issues will be held with political representatives of the government instead of officials of intelligence agencies or through other channels.

“The decision taken at the MMA summit meeting held in Islamabad on Saturday last is aimed at dispelling the impression being created among the masses that the six-party religious alliance is entering into any clandestine deal with the government.”

In future, talks on these issues would be held with Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Jamali or Chaudhry Shujaat Husain instead of the agencies’ high-ups, MMA Information Secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi told Dawn on Tuesday.

The summit meeting also decided that no flexibility would be shown in the talks, he added.

“We have gone to our maximum limit and are not ready to go any farther in this respect.”

According to Mr Hashmi, Pakistan ambassador in Kenya Hameed Kadwai played a major role in bringing the MMA and the government closer to a deal in the recent past.

Under the proposed agreement, the National Security Council was to be created under an act of parliament as an advisory body, while the LFO’s clauses dealing with lowering of voters’ age, increasing women seats and introducing joint electorate were to last up to the tenure of the incumbent assemblies only.

The issue of extension given to the superior courts’ judges was to be resolved by making them take oath under the 1973 Constitution, which put 65 years as the retirement age of a judge.

About the uniform issue, it was decided that Gen Pervez Musharraf would be allowed three-year extension to his term.

The MMA insisted that the extension would be considered from the date when Gen Musharraf was to originally retire, and thus the extension would end in October 2004.

The government was of the view that the extended tenure was to start from the day when the deal would be signed. The deal, however, could not be materialized as Gen Musharraf had refused to give a written undertaking about when he was going to shed his uniform.

Mr Hashmi claimed that the MMA had even recently been offered the offices of deputy prime minister and the National Assembly speaker, besides various ministries. But the government was told that the alliance’s leaders had, in principle, decided not to join the federal government in any case.

AUG 14 MEETING: The MMA information secretary said the PPP, the largest component in the ARD, did not want to hold a joint public meeting with the religious alliance.