October 10, 2001	Wednesday	Rajab 22, 1422

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LAHORE, Oct 9: The PML-QA may have to face a number of difficulties in forming an alliance with religious parties as most of them are reluctant to sit with the Pakistan Awami Tehrik with which the party headed by Mian Azhar has already reached an understanding.

The PML-QA thinks that religious parties are its natural allies and cooperation with them may be beneficial for both sides in the next elections. It wants to join hands with the JUP of Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and the Jamaat-i-Islami.

The JUP leadership expressed its reservations about the PAT at a meeting held at the residence of PML-QA vice-president Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri a few days back.

It is said that Maulana Noorani was willing to cooperate with the PML-QA but not at a time when the PAT was also its ally. “We give you a blank cheque,” the JUP president reportedly said while talking to Mr Kasuri, indicating that his party could go to any extent to work together. But the very next moment, he also indicated that he could not sit with the PAT.

The Jamaat-i-Islami and the JUI also don’t have a positive opinion about the PAT, and there is little possibility of their joining hands with any party which accepts the PAT as an ally.

The JI had made its opinion about the PAT known to everyone when it did not extend invitation to it for participation in the all-party conference held at Mansoora on Sept 16.

A PML-QA leader said on condition of anonymity that his party had formed a committee with the PAT to discuss the modalities of future cooperation mainly to avoid criticism of each other.