ISLAMABAD, May 12: The 11-member government-opposition committee deliberating the contentious issue of the Legal Framework Order remained sharply divided on the question of a time-frame for the separation of the offices of president and Chief of Army Staff, when it held its sitting on Monday.
The talks, held with the National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain in the chair, lasted for six hours and a half.
The committee strongly contradicted reports that the MMA had agreed to allow the president to continue donning the military uniform for two years.
It decided to start preparing the constitutional package on the agreed points of the seven contentious items in the LFO that were identified by the opposition.
At one point, the talks were about to break down when members from the opposition side started separate deliberations on the contentious points outside the negotiations room, and returned only on being persuaded by senior parliamentarian, S.M. Zafar.
MMA’s Liaqat Baloch told reporters after the meeting that the committee was fully empowered to prepare its recommendations for the consideration and final approval of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and the heads of parliamentary parties.
PPP Patriots’ Dr Sher Afgan, who accompanied the MMA leader, said the details of the talks could not be divulged at this point of time.
Both termed the atmosphere of the parleys “good as usual”. They expressed the determination of all members to reach a consensus on maximum points of contention, and to hand over their report latest by May 14 — one day ahead of the time given to it.
Dr Sher Afgan said: “We are confident to reach a consensus on most of the contentious points, and have started preparing our recommendations.”
When asked point-blank whether the committee was stuck on the issue of president keeping the COAS office as well, he said: “It would be inappropriate to discuss this at this stage.”
He added that “we would give our recommendations on all issues.”
Mr Baloch observed that some news reports suggesting that the committee had no powers of giving a constitutional package were not true.
He said the opposition side had been assured by the government that the joint committee’s recommendations will be given due weightage.
“We have completed deliberations on all the seven contentious items, and have decided to give them shape of a package of recommendations,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Baloch read out the following statement: “The parliamentary committee on constitutional issues held its meeting in which the members from both the opposition and government sides reiterated their combined stance. It observed that it was fully empowered to prepare recommendations with regard to the LFO without any kind of pressure.
“It also cleared that the package which this committee will prepare will go for final approval to the prime minister and the heads of all parliamentary groups.”
Those who attended the meeting from the government side were S.M. Zafar, Dr Afgan Niazi, Abdur Razzak Thaheem, Safwanullah and Riaz Pirzada while the opposition side was represented by Liaqat Baloch, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Latif Khosa and Khawaja Asif.