LAHORE, March 11: PPP-Parliamentarians chairman Makhdoom Amin Faheem restated here on Tuesday that his party would not change its stand on the status of the Legal Framework Order and would go by the stand to be adopted by the joint opposition in parliament.

Speaking at a meeting of the party’s provincial leaders, he said the Constitution could not be amended through any means except the one provided in the document. The LFO, he said, should be presented to parliament for a debate.

The PPP leader said being unable to alter the Constitution by itself, the Supreme Court was not empowered to delegate any such authority to any individual.

Makhdoom made it clear that his party would not accept the LFO as part of the basic law not let anyone undermine the supremacy of parliament.

He said opposition legislators in the National Assembly had taken oath under the 1973 Constitution and they would do the same in the Senate.

Makhdoom indicated that PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto would come back to Pakistan in the near future. He directed party leaders and workers to make arrangements to receive the self-exiled former prime minister.

Ms Bhutto had gone out of the country some five years back.

Time, the PPP leader said, had come to accord a rousing welcome to Ms Bhutto.

On the Iraq situation, Makhdoom said his party was opposed to war as it was not the solution to any problem. The PPP, he said, was aware of the sufferings of the Iraqi people.

Punjab president Qasim Zia said legislators who had betrayed the PPP had already been rejected by masses and they stood no future.

He said the PPP leaders and workers had braved atrocious treatment during the Zia era and they would not fear anything now.

He asked his party colleagues to make preparations to observe the death anniversary of the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on April 4. He said district organizations should finalize arrangements by March 20 and then reach Larkana by April 2.

Vice-Chairman Syed Yousaf Reza Gilani underlined the need for adherence to the party ideology to obviate the possibility of the emergence of the breakaway factions in the future. Had the defectors been proceeded against at the very outset, nobody would have dared part ways with the party after winning the elections from its platform, he observed.

He proposed that vacant party offices should be filled immediately.

He believed that some mistakes had been committed in the distribution of party tickets at the time of the elections.

There was an exchange of hot words between two Bahawalpur leaders of the party which led to a walkout by one. However, they were calmed down by other party leaders.

Rana Aftab Ahmed Khan, Khalid Kharal, Munir Ahmed Khan also spoke.

A resolution adopted by the participants demanded the withdrawal of all baseless cases against PPP leaders and permission to Ms Bhutto to return home and steer the country out of the crisis.

Other resolutions demanded winding up of the political wing of the ISI, withdrawal of the increase in utility bills, disbandment of the boards of governors for medical and educational institutions, regularization of all ad hoc employees and restoration of union formation rights of the employees.

The kidnapping and torture of the PML-N leader by some intelligence operatives was condemned at the meeting.