ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: The government told the National Assembly on Tuesday that President Pervez Musharraf was not bound to give up his army post by Dec 31.

The position was explained by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi and Law Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar before Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain ruled out of order four identical privilege motions moved by opposition members against statements by some ruling coalition leaders urging the president to continue to hold his army post.

The members complained that these statements as well as one by the president himself that 96 per cent people wanted him to stay in uniform were in violation of the constitution and breached the privilege of the National Assembly.

The speaker reserved his ruling on the motions after a scathing criticism of these statements by opposition members during a morning sitting on what was a private members' day and delivered it at the end of a second sitting in the evening before adjourning the house until 5pm on Thursday.

He said the constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and expression to all citizens and that opinions expressed about the president's uniform did not breach any privilege of the assembly.

Therefore, he said, the matter did not require any intervention by the assembly. He then ruled privilege motions out of order. Law Minister Wasi Zafar said a proviso in the Constitution (17th Amendment) Bill that most opposition members said required Gen Musharraf to give up as Chief of the Army Staff did not apply to the president. He argued that the president was elected before the ban on the holder of an office of profit to seek such an election was made applicable from Dec 31.

"He was elected (as president) in uniform and will complete his term with uniform," he said categorically, referring to the 2002 referendum in which Gen Musharraf had sought five more years as president. But, the minister said, the president had not taken any decision yet about when to give up his army office, adding that a decision would be taken keeping in view the international situation and people's opinion.

Earlier, Mr Niazi also said the (aforementioned) proviso did not apply to the president's term. He said the opposition would have to bring an 18th amendment to compel the president to give up as army chief.

Most opposition speakers relied on the proviso passed by parliament in December that said that a bar on the holder of an office of profit in the government to hold or seek an elective office would apply after Dec 31. They also relied on the president's own promise to give up his army post by that date.

But PPP member Aitzaz Ahsan said that besides this proviso, Gen Musharraf was also barred from holding both offices because of his oath as army chief not to engage in any political activity, while the presidency was a political office.

MMA leader Liaquat Baloch said statements as well a resolution passed by the Punjab assembly urging the president to continue wearing uniform were a violation of the constitution and breached the privilege of the assembly.

PML-N parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that a marginalizing of the constitutional ban on government servant to hold an elective office would open a Pandora's box that would never close and that it would be proper for the National Assembly to pack up if the president was still in uniform on Jan 1 next year.