ISLAMABAD, June 14: National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain on Saturday ruled that the Legal Framework Order was part of the Constitution, the opinion was immediately denounced by the opposition parties.

“The amendments made in the Constitution through LFO, 2002 remain within the parameters laid down by the Supreme Court and do not violate any of the salient features identified by the apex court,” said the ruling delivered by him just before the lower house’s week-long budget session was prorogued.

“And I hold that LFO is part of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973,” he said.

Members of the ruling coalition welcomed the three-page ruling by thumping their desks. The Speaker on Saturday also ruled out a point of order raised by MMA leader Liaquat Baloch last November.

Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and other party leaders called on the Speaker in his chamber to greet him on his action.

The Speaker, while handing out the ruling, said that the opposition members had failed to convince him that the constitutional amendments were invalid or otherwise violative of the decision made by the Supreme Court in Zafar Ali Shah’s case.

“I, therefore, hold the same view that the Constitution was rightly amended through the LFO on the basis of the decision of the Supreme Court and (the constitutional) amendments ... are valid,” he observed.

While validating the October 12, 1999 military coup, the Supreme Court in the Syed Zafar Ali Shah’s case had held that the Chief Executive was entitled to perform all such acts and promulgate all legislative measures, which were in accordance with, or could have been made under the 1973 Constitution, including the powers to amend it.

“The Chief Executive, taking into consideration various compelling facts and after lengthy debates, promulgated LFO,” the ruling said.

It said it was significant that all major parties had contested the General Elections Order 2002, (Chief Executive’s Order No 7 of 2002) but none had filed a petition before the Supreme Court to assail any of the LFO provision.

Now after the election, he noted, the National and Provincial Assemblies and the Senate have come into being and holding their sessions regularly. “Many provisions of the LFO have thus been implemented and acted upon,” the speaker said.

The speaker also referred to the ruling of former speaker Syed Fakhar Imam on almost in an identical situation in which the privilege motion of Mumtaz Ahmed Tarrar, the then MNA in the 1985 National Assembly, was ruled out of order on the grounds that the house was competent to take up these amendments afresh and amend them and also competent to re-amend, it if wants, or amend any other clause or Article of this Constitution.

Explaining his position, Chaudhry Amir Hussain said that he had stated in his press conference that amendments made through the LFO were part of the Constitution in view of the powers given to the chief executive to make amendments in the Constitution by the Supreme Court.

Liaqat Baloch, through a point of order on November 21, had expressed his concern about the speaker’s comments about the status of LFO in a press conference soon after his election to the office of the speaker.

Members of the combined opposition said that the speaker had become controversial and biased by taking sides on this issue.

Pakistan Muslim League-N’s acting president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said he expected the speaker to act in a manner which was below his dignity.

Blaming the speaker of giving the ruling under duress, he said that he had been under pressure as he had been elected to the National Assembly through what he termed a controversial election.

Deputy secretary-general of the People’s Party Parliamentarians Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi termed the ruling a “regrettable act” that would “further aggravate the situation and add fuel to the fire”.

He said he and Maulana Fazlur Rehman had held a meeting with the speaker on Saturday morning and had asked him not to give such a ruling as it would agitate the members.

PPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar, in a statement, termed the ruling unacceptable, saying it would jeopardize the ongoing talks between the government and the opposition on the issue.

Deputy secretary-general of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Liaquat Baloch, and the alliance’s deputy parliamentary leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, while describing the ruling as being an outcome of “pressure” on part of the government, threatened to move a no-confidence motion against the speaker.

Mr Baloch criticized the speaker for ruling in the absence of the opposition, saying it was against the parliamentary traditions. The combined opposition, he said, would never accept the speaker’s ruling, adding it had “no weight.”

Opposition leaders are scheduled to hold a meeting on Sunday morning to review the situation in this regard.