LAHORE, Jan 9: Three central leaders of the ruling PML-Q on Thursday demanded that the government must allow the judges of the Supreme Court to take fresh oath under the 1973 Constitution so that they could decide controversies on the status of the Legal Framework Order.

In a statement after a meeting, Mian Azhar, Begum Abida Husain and Syed Fakhr Imam said since the ruling party and opposition had divergent views on the status of the LFO, the matter was bound to go to the apex court and it would not be in a position to settle the matter unless judges were administered the oath under the 1973 Constitution.

They said at present some parties were insisting that the LFO could not be made a part of the Constitution without parliament’s approval. Bar associations also held the same view.

But, they said, the other point of view was that opposition was free to have the LFO removed from the Constitution through the procedure prescribed for a constitutional amendment.

They said an amendment could be made or struck off with a two-thirds majority in parliament, which no party had at the moment.

In such a situation, there was an impasse on the LFO issue, they said.

The matter, the PML-Q leaders said, was so important that only the Supreme Court could settle it. And the apex court would be in a position to settle it only when it was administered oath under the 1973 Constitution.

When Dawn contacted Begum Abida Husain to know whether the point of view expressed by the three leaders was not in conflict with the PML-Q’s stand on the subject, she said the party had not taken a formal stance on the issue and one was free to express his or her opinion on a subject.