ISLAMABAD April 19: A joint meeting of opposition parliamentary groups in the National Assembly on Friday decided to take their protest against the Legal Framework Order to the Senate and provincial assemblies.

Talking to newsmen after a meeting of the combined opposition steering committee, MMA leader Liaquat Baloch said it was resolved that struggle against controversial presidential powers would continue and any constitutional package excluding the contentious parts of LFO would be accepted.

He said the combined opposition was ready to hold “meaningful” talks if the government offered it. The combined opposition condemned government’s attitude of refraining from entering into constructive talks to end the crisis. Among others who attended the meeting were MMA’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Liaquat Baloch, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Mohammad Khan Shirani, PPP-Parliamentarians’ Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah and Naveed Qamar, PML-N’s Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Tehmina Daultana, and Mehmood Achakzai of Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Abdur Rauf Mengal of Balochistan National Party.

Some participants stressed that all opposition representative should take part in talks with the government and opposed the MMA’s going alone. It was agreed that any offer to an individual party would not be turned down but other parties would be informed about the talks.

The meeting resolved that the LFO was an unconstitutional piece of legislation promulgated by an individual which would never be accepted. It was decided that the protest by the MNAs would continue on the next NA session on April 21.

Earlier, MMA, PPP-Parliamentarians and PML-N held separate meetings to chalk out the strategy to carry on the protest campaign against LFO.