February 21, 2002	Thursday	Zilhaj 8, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: The PML leadership has decided to launch a mass-contact drive in the country for reorganizing the party and assessing its following for the next election.

The campaign would be launched on the instructions of party’s exiled leader Nawaz Sharif, sources said.

Raja Zafrul Haq, chairman of the party, will lead a party delegation that will tour lower Punjab from Feb 28, during which a convention will be held at Rahimyar Khan and a labour convention at Multan on March 4.

Talking to Dawn, the PML leader described the negotiations held with Pir Fazle Haq, chief of Jamiatul Mashaikh Pakistan, on Tuesday as conclusive and fruitful and said the latter had assured total support for the PML in the coming polls.

He said that talks with other like-minded parties were in progress and the PML was ready to contest next polls from a strong position.

Asked whether the PML was also holding talks for an alliance with the PPP, Raja Zafar said: “Informal talks were continuing but no final decision has yet been taken”.

He, however, explained that the party would not give the military government an easy sailing in the ensuing polls and would take every measure to win majority seats.

Meanwhile, PML Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooq has termed President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s visit to the US a complete failure, saying neither the US had given any categorical assurance to mediate on Kashmir nor had it committed to write off its $2.8 billion debt.

A former chairman of the House Building Finance Corporation, Mr Farooq told a news conference that Pakistan had lost $3 billion due to the changes that the military government had brought about in national policies after September 11.