LAHORE, April 17: Gen Pervez Musharraf cannot address joint session of the parliament as being a non-elected president he will be a stranger in the house, says the Pakistan People’s Party.

Briefing reporters after a meeting of the party’s Lahore Coordination Committee here on Thursday, PPP leader Munir Ahmad Khan said the body had demanded the government to immediately convene the joint session otherwise it would be violating the constitution.

Under the constitution, a joint session of the Senate and the National Assembly should be held at the beginning of each parliamentary year.

Demanding immediate election to the office of the president, he said the parliament was incomplete without it. There was no justification for delaying the process as electoral college for the election had completed after polls to the Senate, he argued.

Mr Khan reiterated the party’s resolve to continue its struggle, inside and outside the parliament, against the LFO and pledged its determination to defend the 1973 Constitution in its original form.

The meeting wondered that the government which had admitted at the floor of the National Assembly during its first session that the LFO was not a part of the constitution, was now taking a stance totally opposite to the earlier one.

He urged the PML-Q leadership to bring the LFO to the house for its approval so that the present constitutional crisis could be amicably resolved.

Calling for winding up of the NAB and release of all political prisoners, including Asif Zardari, he alleged the institution had failed to perform its function and had rather become a tool for victimizing political opponents.

Those who attended the meeting held here with Khalid Kharal in the chair included Qasim Zia, Ahmad Mukhtar, Altaf Qureshi, Fakhar Zaman, Mian Misbahur Rahman, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Azizur Rahman Chan and Aitzaz Ahsan.

PPP-Patriots: Legal action against the PPP-Patriots is likely to be initiated when the National Assembly will be in session for finalizing next year’s budget.

Talking to reporters after Lahore Coordination Committee’s meeting here on Thursday, PPP leader MNA Aitezaz Ahsan said the party would chose an appropriate time to initiate legal action against the MPs who had been elected on PPP ticket but later changed loyalties to join the government.

He said the action could have been taken either during the election of NA speaker or when the vote of confidence was moved for the prime minister. The third opportunity was to come when the government would require voting in the NA to get its budgetary proposals passed for the next financial year.

“The 5-P members will be asked to vote in accordance with the party policy. Otherwise, a reference will be filed against them (with the Election Commission),” he said.