ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: The combined opposition in the National Assembly on Friday offered cooperation in running the lower house proceedings smoothly on the condition the government pronounced on the floor of the house that the Legal Framework Order (LFO) was not part of the Constitution, and that it would remain so until the relevant amendments were approved by parliament.

The opposition strongly condemned what it termed the Minister of State Raza Hayat Hiraj’s attempts to chase and attack a woman MNA [Naheed Khan (PPP)] in the assembly hall, and demanded unqualified apology from the government for this “unparliamentary” and “ungentlemanly” act.

Speaking at a joint news conference at the assembly cafeteria soon after walking out en bloc from the house, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s parliamentary leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the opposition would bring its agenda for the current session when the government declared that the LFO was alien to the Constitution.

After making this declaration, he added, the government should come up with a mechanism for bringing a suitable amendments package for debate and assent by the National Assembly.

Responding to a query, he confirmed that Maulana Fazlur Rahman had given a deadline to the government to complete the proposed constitutional package by Aug 25 and present it in the National Assembly by Aug 28 as he would not be available after that.

Qazi said the present political stalemate could end if Gen Musharraf realized that his three-year dictatorship was more than enough, and that it was time for him to call it a day.

“An elected parliament is in place which should be accepted by the general as the supreme law-making body, and that no constitutional amendments be made without referring them to this body.”

He warned Gen Musharraf against winding up the system because in that case he (the president) would also have to pack up and go. A powerful movement would follow such an action which, he said, no one would be able to forestall. He expressed the hope, though, that good sense would prevail before such a thing happened.

The MMA leader said: “We had entered into a dialogue with the government despite opposition from our ARD friends, but to no avail. We all have come to the conclusion that the government is not sincere in taking the talks to their logical end.”

He added: “The act of a minister of state (Hiraj) today was a reflection of the conspiracy that had been hatched in the meeting between the president and 40 coalition parliamentarians the other day in which the allied parties leadership was advised to be proactive.”

Earlier, PML-N’s parliamentary leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said the opposition, by staging walkouts on Wednesday and Friday, had exposed the government and shown that the ruling alliance was incapable of doing any legislative business.

He said the opposition had effectively responded to the so-called “proactive policy” adopted by the treasury benches by keeping its cool despite all kinds of provocations by the ruling coalition. He asked Gen Musharraf to stop threats of dissolution of the assemblies as he did not have the courage to take such an extreme action.

He said the method of protest would be changed with the passage of time to mount pressure from outside parliament as well.

Mr Hashmi said: “We, the combined opposition, are on a mission to establish undiluted democracy and restore parliament’s sovereignty and its right to amend the Constitution.”

MMA’s deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that the meeting between the president and 40 pro-Musharraf parliamentarians had decided to use commando tactics inside the house.

He said the first instance of it was shown by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Raza Hayat Hiraj who is responsible for running parliamentary affairs as smoothly as possible, and keeping the house from veering away from its legislative course.

He said the opposition was well aware of the conspiracy of the government benches to push the opposition into a physical clash. It kept its cool, foiled the attempt and denied the government an excuse it was looking for to wind up the system.

He lashed out at the PPP Parliamentarian’s renegade Dr Sher Afgan Niazi for what he called his “vulgar gestures” inside parliament where a large number of women legislatures were present.

Liaqat Baloch said the opposition’s protest in the assembly was meant to establish the sovereignty of parliament, and the government, losing its nerves, started taking recourse to “shameful acts.”

He said: “We will respond to all the indecent and undemocratic acts of the government in a political and democratic manner.”

He blamed the speaker for keeping silent when a treasury member went on a rampage inside the assembly.

He held the government responsible for the failure of Thursday’s meeting of house advisory committee in hammering out a consensus agenda for the current session.

Earlier, PPP’s Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Raja Pervez Ashraf, and PML-N’s Begum Tehmina Daultana also spoke against the treasury side’s aggressive posturings in the assembly.