LAHORE, May 25: MMA’s deputy parliamentary party leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmad refuted on Sunday the impression that ‘talks’ between the government and opposition parties on the LFO had failed.

Speaking at a news conference here, he said so far parties represented in parliament were engaged in preparing their recommendations on the LFO which had been handed over to the NA speaker for submission to the prime minister.

Talks on the controversial LFO would begin on Tuesday (May 27) in the light of the recommendations of the constitutional committee when political leaders would be meeting the prime minister, Hafiz said.

He said invitation letters for the meeting were being sent to the relevant political parties.

He said the May 27 talks would determine whether the two sides had neared an agreement or the gulf had widened.

Hafiz, who is also a central leader of the JUI-F, argued that by saying in the presence of newspapers’ editors that offices of the president and the army chief should not remain with one person, Gen Musharraf had recently admitted that the LFO was ‘unconstitutional’.

If Gen Musharraf wanted to retain his uniform, Hafiz said, the MMA would not insist that he should give it up. But in that case, he said, the general should not demand that he should be accepted as president.

Asked whether the PML-Q was in a position to tell Gen Musharraf that he should part with his uniform, Hafiz said they should be. “If they are not, we are trying to empower them. We want parliament take all decisions”.

When a newsman pointed out that the PML-Q leaders had repeatedly said that the LFO was part of the Constitution and a president in uniform was a symbol of national strength, the MMA leader said if so, why the ruling party was holding talks with opposition parties and asking them to give the general some more time to stay as COAS.

He made it clear the MMA was not holding secret or open talks for joining the government.

The MMA leader said when the ruling party team initiated talks in November, opposition parties were asked to give Gen Musharraf five years in uniform. But the MMA gave five months — till March 23, 2003. Now the religious parties’ alliance had extended the deadline to Aug 14 — as August was the month when the country got independence.

Joint opposition, Hafiz Hussain said, believed that power had not been transferred to the elected representatives even six months after the elections. This point of view had also been endorsed by the Commonwealth, which had refused to restore Pakistan’s membership of the club.

He attributed motives to the filing of a petition challenging the eligibility of the MMA representatives’ membership of parliament at a time when talks with the government were in progress. Sarcastically, he praised the ‘judicial activism’ of the apex court which had taken up the petition immediately, though thousands of other petitions were still pending with it.

Hafiz warned the elements using derogatory language against the MMA, saying in future such people would be paid in the same coin.