ISLAMABAD, July 22: Former President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari on Monday strongly opposed any role of the proposed National Security Council in the dismissal of the future elected governments.

“The proposed NSC should not have any role in the dismissal of the government. In that case, it would become a den of conspiracies,” Sardar Farooq Leghari, head of the Millat Party and Convener of National Alliance, told a press conference here at the party office.

Mr Leghari, who had set up National Council for Security and Defence during his tenure as president, called for limiting the role of the NSC strictly to matters of national security.

The proposed council should be subservient to the federal cabinet and its decisions should be of recommendatory nature, he said.

However, the former president whose Millat Party and his alliance are known to have a pro-Musharraf tilt, did not object to the composition of the proposed council as suggested in the constitutional package.

This is a good suggestion that the opposition leader would also be a member of the security council besides the prime minister and four federal ministers, he commented.

Mr Leghari, who himself used the power of dismissing an elected government under the now defunct article 58-2(B), underlined the need for restoring the same article in its original shape, which had been unanimously struck down during the Muslim League government.

The former president argued that the 58(2)B, which empowered the president to dissolve the elected government, kept the military out of power.

The country did not experience any military intervention as long as the article remained part of the constitution, he added. He pointed out that the action taken under the said article was justifiable and a legal recourse was available to the aggrieved party.

Mr Leghari expressed his reservations over the mechanism of dissolving an elected government under the proposed constitutional amendments. No government in the past could eliminate corruption from the society and dissolution of any government on this count was not justified, he said.

Defending his decision as the president to dissolve the government of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 1996, he said the economy was on the verge of collapse. Had the government not been dissolved, the country would have defaulted (on payment of foreign debt), he added.

The Millat Party chief said the strength of Senate should be increased from the proposed 100 to 212, with each province having 50 seats, federally administered tribal areas 10 seats and the federal capital two.

He also demanded presentation of the finance bill before the upper house of parliament to give equal voice to the provinces in the most important legislation concerning the financial allocations to the federating units.

Earlier, Mr Leghari presided over a meeting of the party’s national executive council. Another meeting of the party’s NEC would be held within the next few days to make changes in the party’s constitution in line with the amendments made in the Political Parties Act.

Sardar Muhammad Rind and Mir Ahsan Khurd, former MNA and MPA, respectively, joined the Millat Party on Monday.