Convening of assembly follows 'secret' meeting

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf yesterday summoned the National Assembly to meet here on Saturday following what authentic sources described as "a secret meeting" between top military officials and leaders of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) religious alliance.

It will be the first session of the 342-member assembly following elections on October 10, in which no single party won a simple majority in the house, triggering a political crisis and intense jostling for numerical superiority.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-QA), the pro-Musharraf party, is the largest party in parliament with 103 of its 342 seats, followed by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's opposition Pakistan People's Party with 81 seats. The MMA won 59 seats and hold the balance of power.

No party came close to the 172 seat majority needed to rule independently, and marathon negotiations to form a coalition for the first civilian government in three years have yet to bear fruit.

Last week, the president postponed a scheduled inaugural sitting of the assembly after some parties sought time for coalition-building and consultations.

Five top MMA leaders, including the alliance secretary general Maulana Fazlur Rehman and parliamentary leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, attended the secret talks, the sources said.

Qazi, however, denied the meeting when Gulf News approached him at the airport before his departure along with the other leaders for Karachi to attend a session of the MMA supreme council on the results of negotiations held with pro-government parliamentary parties.

The sources said the MMA was urged to play its role in tandem with the PML-QA in forming a stable coalition government and projecting its image as a moderate political force to the world in the current international environment.

Earlier in the day, the MMA and Grand National Alliance (GNA), another group of pro-Musharraf parties, held crucial talks to build a consensus on issues related to the Legal Framework Order (LFO).

MMA wants modifications in the LFO that Musharraf enforced ahead of the elections to make a raft of amendments to the 1973 constitution.

The religious alliance and other anti-regime parties are wary of wide presidential powers including authority to dismiss elected assembly and of the role of supra-parliament national security council made up of civilian and military leaders.

The national security council, to be led by Musharraf and made up of the top military chiefs as well as civilian politicians, would be empowered with overseeing government. They contend that the amendments negate the supremacy of the parliament.

The Islamists have proposed watering down the contentious amendments, and a leader of the PML-QA has conveyed their proposals to government officials late on Tuesday, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the MMA said.

"We have said we accept some of the constitutional amendments. We have some reservations on the president's power to dissolve parliament. We reject the setting up of a national security council," Ahmed, the MMA's deputy secretary general, said.

PML-QA parliamentary leader Chaudhry Shjuaat Hussain has been acting as a bridge between the MMA and the government in a bid to bring about a give-and-take solution to the constitutional row.

Proposals jointly worked by the two sides were to be placed before a meeting of the MMA supreme council scheduled late last night in Karachi for approval.

Hussain told reporters he was confident that MMA and GNA would reach an agreement on forming a coalition government.

"We are very close to signing an agreement with MMA on government formation," PML-QA spokesman Azim Chaudhry told Gulf News.

"Inshallah they will support us and the principle that each will get its share in a coalition setup according to their respective strength in the assembly," he said, adding that an announcement in this regard by the two sides is expected today.

Ahmed said discussions between MMA and GNA had achieved progress and expressed the hope that they would reach a consensus soon.