ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: The former petroleum minister and prominent leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, has refuted the military government’s allegation that politicians are responsible for the delay in convening of the National Assembly. In fact, the government has been delaying meetings of the national and provincial assemblies under one excuse or the other, he said.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, he said that the official media was churning out stories about the current consultations between political parties giving the impression as if the politicians were unable to decide who should be the prime minister.

He said such stories were actually part of the propaganda that the military regime had been carrying out to defame the politicians and paint them as mere self-seekers.

Chaudhry Nisar said the real and only issue, under discussion by different political parties and their leaders, was the arbitrary and illegal changes that the regime had decreed in the consensus 1973 Constitution.

Major political parties have already rejected the LFO, and the regime is afraid that the National Assembly, once called to meet, might overturn the Musharraf amendments, he added.

He said the federal law minister’s claim that the assemblies could not be convened due to some technical difficulties was mere eyewash, because it was an open secret that the ordinances issued after Oct 10 were meant to ensure perpetuation of military rule.

He said no amount of excuses could remove the widespread suspicion that the government wanted to gain time for collecting support for the PML-Q. But, unable to have desired results, the government now planned to change the floor-crossing law allowing the parliamentarians to vote against party lines in electing the next prime minister.