ISLAMABAD, March 6: The government is likely to introduce a bill any time soon in the National Assembly to facilitate a debate on the LFO, informed sources said here on Thursday.
The ruling alliance, on the advice of the president, is reportedly discussing the wording of the proposed bill with the relevant quarters and constitutional experts.
The purpose of the bill is said to be to satisfy the demands of the opposition but at the same time to retain the vital points of the Legal Framework Order, including the one concerning the election of the army chief to the office of the president.
The sources claimed that the president was willing to let the LFO be discussed in the NA but on the issue of his uniform, he appeared in no mood to give in to the opposition’s demand.
Meanwhile, the opposition parliamentary groups, who had declared after the adjournment of the house proceedings on Wednesday they will not allow the house to run its normal business beyond recitation from the holy Quran, expressed their determination to continue with their uproarious protest inside the house.
Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain had perforce adjourned the proceedings for a day after helplessly watching the unprecedented disorder in the house on Wednesday in the hope that the tempers might cool down during the break, but the opposition still appears unrelenting.
Meanwhile, in a significant move, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali summoned on Thursday the top legal adviser and the chief architect of Legal Framework Order, Sharifuddin Pirzada, and discussed with him legal aspects of the situation.
The lower chamber of parliament, summoned on Feb 26 for two weeks, was supposed to start a five-day debate on the Iraq question and foreign policy from March 5, but the ensuing rumpus in the NA seems to have diminished the chances of this debate taking place as per schedule.
Liaqat Baloch, the parliamentary coordinator of MMA, told Dawn on Thursday that the opposition was united in its stance that no leniency will be shown in its protest on the floor of the house until the government agreed to table the controversial LFO for debate and scrutiny of the house.
Replying to a question as to whether the opposition will behave in a similar fashion in the Senate as they did in the National Assembly, Mr Baloch said the Senators-elect might take oath under protest but they will follow the same pattern adopted in the lower house.
Senator-elect and PPP spokesman Farhatullah Baber said there was no change in the opposition’s programme and it was determined to stick to its stand on the infamous LFO.
Meanwhile, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, the deputy secretary general of MMA, said the opposition had decided to attend the parliamentary advisory committee convened by the speaker on Friday before the start of the session, but will not change its position on the issue of the LFO.
He said Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rahman had decided that the alliance would extend its cooperation to the government only if the latter agreed to putting the LFO to the assembly’s scrutiny.