ISLAMABAD, Aug 21: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has asked Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to once again try to convince the opposition to agree to a “settlement” on controversial issues during the current National Assembly session.

However, talking to Dawn on Thursday sources close to the president ruled out an “overall settlement” between the government and the opposition, and said Gen Musharraf has told the prime minister and PML-Q leaders that he would not give any timeframe for removing his military uniform.

The president wanted the ruling party to work out some new formula to end the 10-month-old confrontation with the opposition on the Legal Framework Order (LFO) and other contentious matters.

The president, however, does not want to address the joint session of parliament under the present circumstances,

Gen Musharraf’s new directive to the prime minister and the PML-Q president, the sources said, came in the wake of Pakistan’s continued failure in adequately attracting local and foreign investment due to prolonged political uncertainty. This uncertainty, they said, was keeping the local and foreign investors away which, in turn, had caused stagnation in the rate of job generation. Millions of unemployed youth bore the brunt of this.

“The rate of fixed investment as a percentage of GDP was 13.1 per cent in 2002-03 — the lowest ever in Pakistan after 1950,” a source said, adding that the rate of fixed investment in 1964-65 was 22.6 per cent which later decreased to 20.6 per cent in 1992-93.

“And this very low fixed investment worries the president which is why he wants an early patch-up with the opposition but, of course, without compromising on the issue of his military uniform,” he said, choosing to remain anonymous.

He said investors were not investing because they did not know whether there will be consistency in policies.

The sources said there was no likelihood that the present NA session would continue for three months to fulfil one of the obligations of the Constitution.

“There are precedents available to condone this constitutional obligation, therefore, it could be prorogued after some reasonable time to avoid the opposition’s daily onslaught against the government and the president,” another source close to the prime minister said.