ISLAMABAD, March 12: The opposition parties on Wednesday filed a fresh requisition asking the speaker of the National Assembly to summon session of the lower house.

An announcement in this regard was made at a joint news conference of the opposition leaders at parliament house.

Opposition leaders, including Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Javed Hashmi, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Abdur Rauf Mengal spoke to the newsmen.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed said that the opposition senators had taken the oath to express their disagreement to the ruling coalition’s claim that the LFO was part of the Constitution.

He said Anwar Bhinder being a treasury member had admitted on the floor of the Senate that the oath being administered to the newly elected senators was the same which was part of the 1973 Constitution. With the taking of the oath, he said, a way had been paved for launching a joint struggle inside and outside parliament against the undemocratic moves of the rulers.

Responding to a query, the Jamaat-i-Islami chief said the opposition had not initiated dialogues with the government as yet except for a meeting with PML-Q parliamentary leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain the other day.

PML-N’s parliamentary leader Javed Hashmi said his party would never recognize Gen Musharraf as president even if he was elected by parliament as his party believed he was responsible for distorting the Constitution and destroying democracy and all the problems that were faced by the nation today.

He said the process of restoration of democracy remained incomplete as long as parliament and provincial assemblies were not asked to elect new president. He said it was a welcome sign that no single member was ready to defend the LFO at the inaugural Senate session.

He alleged that a secret agency hosted a dinner for 54 senators-elect on Tuesday night, where they were given “instructions” in connection with the election of the chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate.

He said such moves by the sensitive agency must stop forthwith to save it from the criticism of the national and international forces.

To a query with regard to the prime minister’s statement about Iraq, the PML-N leader said the demand of the nation was that Islamabad should cast a “No” vote during voting in the UNSC on the US-backed resolution.

JUI’s Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said the opposition would also requisition Senate after Ashura to continue its struggle against the LFO.

Abdur Rauf Mengal of the BNP said that the opposition had made it clear to the treasury benches that it was taking the oath under the Constitution as it stood on Oct 12, 1999.