Opposition ready for talks on LFO

Published March 11, 2003

ISLAMABAD, March 10: The combined opposition in the National Assembly on Monday said it was ready for holding talks with the government on LFO but at the same time made it clear that it will not give up agitation on floor of the house till the objective was achieved.

Speaking at a joint news conference following the prorogation of the house after opposition’s created furore, the parliamentary leaders of opposition parties said the government side had violated an agreement reached in the parliamentary advisory committee and instead of reading out the agreed statement speaker gave the floor to the prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

The combined opposition parties held a meeting at the parliament lobby and discussed various issues including the LFO and its strategy in going into the Senate on Wednesday.

The opposition however appeared undecided on question whether the senators belonging to it would take oath under LFO or not and the decision was deferred for Tuesday.

The opposition also decided to requisition fresh session of the National Assembly and got signatures of all the opposition MNAs available in the house for submission to the speaker’s secretariat in next few days.

The parliamentary leaders of MMA, PPP Parliamentarians, PML-N, Pakhtoonkhwa Awami Milli Party, and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Mehmud Khan Achakzai and Imran Khan were present.

The opposition leadership denied the impression that the MNAs belonging to MMA had not fully participated in Monday’s agitation at the time of prime minister’s speech.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed said: We were given a good news that both sides had agreed on certain points in the parliamentary advisory committee that the house will be prorogued without any fuss but to their dismay prime minister stepped in to speak.

Reacting to premier’s statement on government’s policy on UN resolution he said the premier should have told us in clarity whether Islamabad would vote in favour or against the resolution seeking to attack Iraq instead of twisting the issue to make whole thing ambiguous.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim said: “It appears the prime minister was instructed from somewhere else that he has to deliver speech when the opposition was in a mood to listen to him.”

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