KARACHI, March 8: Imran Khan, chairman, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, has said that the present system in which “Legal Framework Order” has been made part of the 1973 Constitution, cannot survive because the LFO gives all the powers to the president, while responsibilities lie with the prime minister.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, he said if the present crisis persists, the new setup may not stay for long.

In the present situation, the opposition, he said, had no option but to protest over the move to declare LFO part of the Constitution.

He said at the time of administering oath to the members of the National Assembly, former Speaker Illahi Bux Soomro had made a categorical statement that the oath was being administered under the 1973 Constitution.

The Speaker, he said, had then shown a copy of the 1973 Constitution and millions of people had witnessed the proceedings direct from the Parliament House on their TV sets.

He said now the copies provided to the MNAs, carry LFO as part of the Constitution.

“If LFO is accepted as part of the Constitution, it means an end to the supremacy of the parliament, guaranteed in the Constitution,” the PTI chief said.

In addition, he said, the army would get a permanent role in politics being president in the uniform, and there would be a role for the National Security Council too. “The revival of 58 (2B) would make the president all the more powerful which would render the parliament as a rubber stamp”.

He said the amendments were carried out at a time when there was no parliament. Now when the parliament was in existence, the LFO could not be made part of the Constitution without the vetting of the parliament.

Constitutional amendments, he said, could only be effected after the approval of the parliament.

To another question, Mr Khan said by increasing the age of retirement of judges, the judiciary had been deprived of is independence.

He was asked if opposition parties prolonged the crisis, the president could dissolve the parliament and can call for fresh polls, Imran Khan said a rubber stamp parliament cannot deliver goods to the nation.

His attention was drawn towards a probability of a takeover by some other general after the winding up of the system, he said it would be a grave crisis, but they, too, would have no option but to put the democratic system on the line at an earliest.

To yet another question, the PTI chief said the country needed a new leadership to bring about a change as the present lot of politicians, belonging to landed gentry, had pushed the country towards a mess.

He lamented the government for not taking a clear stand on Iraq and demanded that the aspirations of the nation be respected while voting in the Security Council over Iraq as massive rallies were a manifestations that the people were against war.

He said a Pro-Zionist lobby in Washington wanted to unleash a war against Iraq as they had designs on the Middle East and wanted to change its map and take over oil wells in Iraq.

Earlier, welcoming Justice Shaiq Usmani for his decision to join the PTI, he said his party had been striving to provide social, economic and judicial justice to the people and his joining the party would help achieve the objective of the party.

Others present at the press conference were Mairaj Muhammad Khan, Mir Haider Ali talpur, Dr Arif Alvi and others.