LAHORE, Sept 5: The government and the MMA teams, which met here on Friday to resume their talks on the LFO, agreed on settling the issue “as early as possible because further delay may be damaging for the political process.”
However, the talks had to be postponed until Saturday for “lack of quorum” as Hafiz Husain Ahmad, the second representative of the MMA in the “constitutional consultation”, could not reach Lahore from Quetta.
All the three members of the government’s team — PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, Senator S.M. Zafar and National Security Council secretary Tariq Aziz — were however present in the meeting.
According to sources, the government will submit its suggestion in the talks, which will now be held on Saturday morning, that instead of directly asking Gen Pervez Musharraf to give a cut-off date for shedding his uniform an indirect way will be used.
Under this scheme, a date will be given in the constitutional package for making operative the relevant clause of the Constitution that bars a government official from holding any public office.
The government has reportedly agreed to accept the MMA demand that the president’s powers regarding dissolving assemblies should be subject to judicial review.
However, it is insisting that in case the Supreme Court rejects the president’s action, he should not be legally bound to resign. The government believes that the president will be under so much moral pressure that he will naturally have to quit.
The MMA has also raised a point that if Gen Pervez Musharraf dissolves the National Assembly even after it reposes confidence in him, he should be bound to get vote of confidence anew from the forthcoming assembly.
The MMA is likely to agree to giving one year’s extension in the tenure of superior court judges instead of sticking to its earlier stance that only the time period so far consumed by the judges over and above their legal tenure should be validated.
When contacted, MMA deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch termed Friday’s round of talks positive.
He argued that the arrival of all the three negotiators of the government on time was a sign that the government was also serious about the negotiation process, while reports suggested that the address of the president to MPAs in the Governor’s House was also positive.
He, however, said that the MMA had made it clear to the government that prolonging the negotiation process further was not possible and whatever the result it should be put before the masses whose nerves had started to crack.
“If the government thinks that it is gaining time by using delaying tactics, it should be ready to face its fallout,” he added.
