ISLAMABAD Jan 29: The meeting on reunification of various factions of the PML, earlier scheduled for Jan 29 in Islamabad and then postponed, would now be held on Feb 6, in Lahore .

Party sources told Dawn on Tuesday, that the main convention of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), scheduled for Feb 14 to announce the reunification, might also be delayed up to Feb 20.

This delay is being attributed to the difference of opinion among the leadership of various factions which ought to be rectified before final talks.

Various questions hampering the efforts for reunification are to be addressed by PML-QA top brass in its central executive committee meeting on Feb 3 here.

PML-QA strategists would also be waiting for the outcome of a meeting on Feb 4 by its rival PML-N which is to discuss a more broader spectrum of the political scene.

PML-N sources told Dawn that their meeting would take all precautionary measures for keeping the house intact so that no one could jump on PML-QA’s board which, they believed, had the backing of Musharraf government.

“When contentious issues between the factions desiring to reunify are resolved and reunification is confirmed the leaguers who do not support one faction or the other or those who have lost hopes in PML-N would be invited to join us” , a PML-QA leader said.

The PML-QA is making all out efforts to attract the party’s old guards to attend the Feb 6 meeting. It would be a suitable occasion for persuading various factions’s leaders to come to terms with one pre-condition that Mian Mohammad Azhar would retain the figurehead position.

But, no one is sure that any one of them would attend the Lahore moot except for the heads of four factions leaders along with some of their confidants. There is a series of behind-the-scene activities going on in Lahore to persuade the different factional heads to shun basic differences on the terms of reunification.

These differences had surfaced between Hamid Nasir Chatha and PML-QA president during their meeting at Lahore on Jan 23, 2002 , insiders stated.