ISLAMABAD, April 25: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that changes being demanded by opposition in the Legal Framework Order would lead to serious internal and external problems.

Talking to a group of PML-Q senators at the Aiwan-i-Sadr, the president said the opposition parties should not insist on the removal of uniform as it would “harm democratic institutions in the country”.

The president said there would be serious consequences for the country if the LFO was removed in its totality from the Constitution, sources said.

President Musharraf said if he relinquished the office of the COAS, as was being demanded by the opposition parties, the present political system could come under pressure from various quarters.

He said he was not against making minor changes in the LFO but its “reversal” was not at all acceptable to him. “I am not a rigid person and ready to accept better advice but I cannot be forced to do things,” the president was quoted as saying during the meeting.

The sources said a number of senators, including leader of the house Wasim Sajjad and minister for privatization and investment Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, agreed with the president that in case he gave up the charge of COAS, things could be pretty difficult both at home and abroad. They requested the president to meet individually or collectively with opposition politicians so that the impasse on the LFO could be removed.

A senator who attended the meeting said: “We agreed with the president that the course he has adopted to deal with national and international issues is absolutely correct for which he should continue to be the army chief for five years,” he said.

The senator said the president was of the view that if there was sincerity of purpose on the part of the opposition parties, they would eventually realize that provisions like 58(2)(B), National Security Council and Gen Musharraf retaining his uniform were necessary to strengthen the political system.

The president, he said, expressed the hope that the government-opposition talks would succeed and both sides would keep the national interests supreme while dealing with the LFO issue.

President’s Press Secretary and Inter-Services Public Relations chief Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi later said the president’s meeting with the senators was part of his plan to meet people from all walks of life specially politicians and to discuss with them various important issues including the LFO. He said the president believed confrontation between the government and the opposition would only harm democratic order in the country.