LAHORE, April 26: Muttahida Majlis-i-Aml Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Saturday advised Gen Pervez Musharraf not to issue statements in favour of the Legal Framework Order at a time when the opposition and the government were holding talks to resolve the controversy.

Talking to Dawn, he said the general’s statements in favour of the LFO at this juncture could be interpreted by the opposition negotiators as a move to pressure them.

Gen Musharraf had described the LFO as an irrevocable part of the Constitution while talking to reporters in Lahore a few days back, and then a day before Friday’s government-opposition talks he said while talking to editors and senior journalists in Islamabad that it should be left to his judgment when he should part with his military uniform. The general also defended all provisions of the LFO the opposition parties have reservations about.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman said these statements had caused bitterness, but the opposition parties had not used them as a pretext to refuse talks with the government.

“We strongly differ with the assertion that the LFO has automatically become part of the Constitution, without approval from parliament. The opposition will not let parliament transact any business unless the government first satisfies us,” said the Maulana, who had contested the election of prime minister against Mr Jamali, but lost because the PPP-Patriots had supported the Baloch leader and a PPP candidate for the top office had divided the opposition’s vote.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also amir of his faction of the JUI, refused to give importance to utterances that the very future of democracy was at stake in case the LFO was not endorsed. “We’ll not like to be press-ganged in the murder of democracy,” the MMA leader said, implying that ratification of the LFO in its existing form would be a step against the parliamentary system.

“We are positive and serious in our attitude. The government also wants to settle the controversy. It is for this reason that the two sides have agreed to continue the dialogue,” said the Maulana, nominated by the MMA as opposition leader in the National Assembly.

The JUI chief said the opposition had articulated its point of view on the LFO in its talks with the government. The government had been told in plain terms that the opposition parties did not deem Gen Musharraf a legitimate president by virtue of his ‘election’ through the controversial referendum. Similarly, he said, the opposition had reservations about Gen Musharraf continuing as army chief.

The president’s power to dissolve parliament, the formation of the National Security Council, increase in the retirement age of the superior courts’ judges were some other controversial issues, he said.

The Maulana said that in Monday’s round of talks, the opposition parties would also raise matters concerning foreign policy, economic reforms, privatization of educational institutions and Islamization.

In response to a question, the MMA secretary-general said once the government and opposition parties evolved consensus on the LFO, a methodology to incorporate it in the Constitution would also be worked out. “Normally, such bills are moved in the house by the government.”