LAHORE, Aug 13: PML-N acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi says the MMA is with the ARD on the issue of supremacy of parliament and the alliance headed by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan prays for the success of talks religious parties are holding with the government to save the system.

But, he predicted, the government would not bring the LFO to parliament even if the MMA agreed to accept Gen Musharraf in uniform till 2040.

The PML-N leader expressed these views at a Meet-the-Press programme of the Lahore Press Club on Wednesday. Party’s information secretary Siddiqul Farooq and Nawaz Sharif’s spokesman Zaeem Qadri were also present on the occasion.

Mr Hashmi cast doubts on the very sincerity of the government and believed that the talks would not yield any results. According to him, offers made in the first round of parleys that the MMA would be given the offices of deputy prime minister and National Assembly speaker were “non-serious”.

He claimed that the government had approached the exiled Sharifs about a dozen times, offering them to return to Pakistan. The only condition attached with the offer was that the Sharifs would keep silent for a couple of years and allow Gen Musharraf to address the joint session of parliament. But, he said, the Sharifs rejected the offer, saying they would not like to make any compromise on principles.

As for the much talked about agreement between the government and the Sharifs, he said the factual situation was quite different from what had been published by the press.

He said Nawaz Sharif had approached the then president Rafiq Tarar telling him that the family wanted to go abroad for medical treatment and thus sentences passed against them should be “condoned”. This, he said, was the total “agreement” between the two sides.

The request, he said, had also been signed by PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif, though very reluctantly.

He said Nawaz Sharif’s passport had expired and the government was not renewing it.