LAHORE, Sept 13: PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi urged the MMA on Saturday not to accept the LFO as a part of the Constitution.
At a news conference here, he said if the LFO was turned down, Gen Musharraf would require parliament’s approval even for the extension he had allowed himself as army chief.
Mr Hashmi said the ARD valued its ties with the MMA but held the Constitution dearer. Therefore, he said, there could be no compromise on the Constitution.
He said the ARD was not opposed to talks, but the MMA negotiators must bear in mind that they had assured the nation time and again that they wanted restoration of the Constitution in the form that existed before the military takeover.
The PML-N leader said that the country needed a full-time army chief.
According to him, formation commanders had decided even before the last year’s general election that after the polls President Gen Pervez Musharraf would dissociate himself from the army, which would be given a full-time army chief. He said it had been decided at the same meeting that politics would be left to Gen Musharraf and parliament.
Mr Hashmi said the commanders should meet the requirements of their oath and not hold themselves hostage to the whims of a single individual.
He said the season of change had set in and the ‘real game’ started. However, he did not elaborate this point.
Ridiculing Gen Musharraf’s claim that he enjoyed the support of all generals, the PML-N leader said it manifested only his vulnerability.
He reiterated his claim that deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif had been approached a dozen times with the request that he should come back to the country. But, he said, Mr Sharif had made it clear that he could not make any compromise on the Constitution.
He told a questioner that opposition’s protest in the parliament was not for the return of Mr Sharif. Instead, he said the protest was targeted at ensuring the supremacy of parliament, and it would continue till the goal was achieved.
He alleged that Gen Musharraf wanted a puppet prime minister and a weak parliament.
Referring to Gen Musharraf’s planned visit to the United States, he made it clear that the nation would reject any agreement made by him in the same manner it had rejected the ones he had made on Afghanistan and Iraq.
In response to a question, the PML-N leader said Gen Musharraf was talking about new dams only to fool the nation. Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Zaeem Qadri and Mian Asad Mohammad were also present at the news conference.