Islamabad: Pakistan's Opposition parties have urged the Jamali government to hold a referendum on controversial Constitutional amendments brought in by President Pervez Musharraf and asked him to quit the post of Army Chief as part of a compromise formula to accept his Presidency.

"This is the suitable time for holding referendum as in current circumstances, it is the best possible way to break the deadlock," Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in the National Assembly on April 21 night after an uproar over the issue.

He urged the government to hold the referendum to know the nation's opinion on the Legal Framework Order (LFO), which validated Musharraf's election as President through a referendum last year and incorporated his amendments that granted him power to dismiss Parliament.

The leader of Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-e Amal (MMA) Qazi Hussain Ahmad asked Musharraf to give a date by which he would quit as Chief of Army so that Opposition parties could agree to elect him as President through Parliament and Assemblies.

Addressing a meeting on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Urdu poet Allama Iqbal on April 21 night, Hussain said the government and Opposition parties have reached understanding on many issues concerning the LFO but the final agreement could not be reached as Musharraf held the posts of the President and Chief of Army.

PTI