LAHORE, April 13: President of his faction of the PML Hamid Nasir Chattha on Sunday called on ARD President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan and discussed with him the need for “national unity”.
The Nawabzada told him that the Legal Framework Order was the major obstacle to the national unity and Gen Musharraf should heed to the call of the hour.
Chattha also asked the ARD president to move to Islamabad for the next few days in view of the situation in the federal capital.
On the other hand, MMA Information Secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi said on Sunday that all parties in the opposition would be meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday (April 15) to decide a joint course of action for the National Assembly session, scheduled for the day.
He said the same strategy would be followed on the day of the joint session, possibly on April 21.
He said important political leaders, who are not member of the either house, would also participate in the said meeting.
Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said the ARD would not allow Gen Musharraf to address the joint session of parliament.
Gen Musharraf, he said, was not the legitimate president of the country and thus he could not be allowed to set foot in the Parliament House.
He said the general should step down in the larger interest of the country.
CHATTHA: The PML-C president said the system would not work properly and the state of uncertainty would not come to an end unless the two sides sit across the table and settle their differences on the LFO.
Talking to reporters here, he said India was issuing provocative statements against Pakistan and the threats could be met with national unity alone.
He said at present nobody was in a position to withdraw the LFO and, therefore, the ruling party and the opposition should settle their differences on the issue through talks.
“A give-and-take approach should be adopted”, he said.
However, he refused to elaborate which side should give what, saying by giving his opinion on the subject he would be impairing his impartiality.
He said it was a fact that parties had accepted several provisions of the LFO by taking part in the elections, held under the same law.
The PML-C chief said the demand that the Constitution should be restored to its pre-October 12, 1999, position was “too much to hope for”.
In his opinion both sides would have to be flexible in their approach. If parties could accept the amendments concerning their candidates’ election to assemblies, they should also be willing to accept some other amendments necessitated by the situation.
SAAD: Punjab PML-N Secretary-General Khwaja Saad Rafiq said on Sunday that his party would not change its stand on the LFO at any cost.
He said the supporters of the LFO were ‘criminals’ for the Constitution and democracy.
Begum Tehmina Daultana said that PML-N’s stand on the LFO would be more radical than that of the MMA’s.
She was scheduled to leave here for Jeddah on April 21, but has postponed her programme because of the joint session of parliament.