ISLAMABAD, June 4: The Presidential representatives re-established contacts with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal on Wednesday after a week-long gap in an effort to defuse growing tension between the Centre and the NWFP.
Meetings between the president’s representatives and the MMA leaders mainly focussed on evolution of a consensus on contentious issues and their possible settlement before the June 7 budget session of the National Assembly and the Senate.
First, the ruling PML-Q chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, held a meeting with the MMA leaders Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Liaquat Baloch to discuss the issue of the president’s uniform.
The second meeting was held between Intelligence Bureau chief Col Bashir Wali (retired) with MMA’s Liaquat Baloch. The third meeting was between Mr Baloch and president’s top aide Tariq Aziz.
Later, Maulana Fazlur Rehman briefed Jamaat-i-Islami deputy chief Senator Khurshid Ahmed and PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi about his discussions with Chaudhry Shujaat.
The leaders decided that a meeting of the combined opposition would be held on June 6 to finalize its strategy on the protest campaign during the budget session.
The MMA’s supreme council will also hold its meeting in Lahore on Thursday, while the alliance’s parliamentary party will meet at parliament house at 10am on Saturday.
Briefing newsmen, MMA’s deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch said all the government functionaries stressed that the decision about relinquishing the army post should be left to the president.
He said the opposition wanted settlement of all contentious issues, adding that the process of dialogue would continue. He said there would not be any deadlock as in the MMA’s view any deadlock would be dangerous for the country’s solidarity.
Mr Baloch said the government representatives tried to make the MMA believe that since President Pervez Musharraf had fulfilled all his promises, including that of holding of general election and the transfer of power, he would also relinquish his army post even before the timeframe given in the LFO provided the decision was left to him.
After high-level meetings the MMA leadership, however, reiterated its stand on the LFO and separation of the offices of the president and the COAS. It also declared that it would continue its protest inside and outside parliament along with the combined opposition for the supremacy of parliament and upholding of the Constitution.
The government side assured the MMA leaders that the administrative steps taken in the Frontier province were of routine nature as similar transfers were also made in Sindh and Islamabad. The government side also held out the assurance that no drastic steps would be taken against the MMA government.
Liaquat Baloch said Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Farooq Leghari should shun their partiality in the present circumstances and instead play their due role in steering the country out of the present crisis.
Elaborating, he said, these leaders could assure the president on behalf of the MMA that the religious alliance would not go back on their promise of electing him as the president after he had relinquished his army chief’s office.
He demanded that parliament and all political parties must be taken into confidence on the upcoming visit of President Musharraf to the Unites States and his meeting with President Bush which had attained significance as it was being held at Camp David.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leader said instead of Gen Musharraf, Prime Minister Jamali should have visited the US as he enjoyed the support of the cabinet and the elected parliament.
He criticized those elements who had arranged filing of a writ petition in the Supreme Court which challenged the degrees of the MMA MNAs and MPAs, adding that the step had been taken to pressure the MMA and force it to agree to a compromise on the LFO.
He expressed the confidence that since the degrees of the MMA legislators were duly checked by the Election commission and endorsed by the University Grants Commission there was nothing to fear.
The MMA leadership, he said, was united and would not change its stance on the Legal Framework Order despite all sorts of pressure, including actions against the NWFP government.