LAHORE, June 15: The president of the ruling PML-Q, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, says despite the negative attitude of the opposition, his party is still willing to hold talks on the seven issues on which a consensus could not be evolved in the earlier rounds of negotiations.
In a statement issued a day after the NA Speaker declared the LFO a part of the Constitution, the PML-Q chief said the Legal Framework Order was a non-issue. In fact, he said, it was a methodology to amend the 1973 Constitution, power for which had been conferred on the chief executive by the Supreme Court.
Mr Shujaat said his party had shown immense flexibility on the subject and had done its best to have concurrence of all parties on the amendments.
Doors for a consensus on these amendments had still not been closed, and the opposition should reciprocate by showing flexibility, the PML-Q chief said.
He asked the critics of the LFO why they had kept silent when the MMA was forming its government in the NWFP and a coalition was being negotiated for Balochistan.
He made it clear that the opposition was not in a position to dictate the ruling party nor prevent it from passing the budget or enacting legislation.
He said being the majority party, the PML-Q had the right to run the country till the next elections.
Mr Shujaat said in the budget session he was expecting positive suggestions from the opposition, but it was regrettable that it boycotted the session.
PML-Q Senator S M Zafar said while speaking to newsmen that the speaker’s ruling on the status of the LFO had removed the ambiguity on the subject. He said the speaker was authorized to give his ruling anytime, but he preferred to wait for the outcome of talks between the PML-Q and opposition parties.
He said a meeting of the heads of political parties could not be called because of the growing demands of the opposition.
Former law minister Dr Khalid Ranjha said there should be no deadlock between the government and the opposition at this juncture.
In a separate statement, PML-N MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq said the NA speaker had undermined the dignity of his office by giving his ruling in favour of the LFO.
The ruling, he said, had established that the speaker was an instrument of dictatorship, not the custodian of the house.
The PML-N leader said the ruling was an attempt to stab in the back of the parliamentary system and carried no weight.