LAHORE, March 1: The steering committee of the all-party conference, comprising leaders from some parties in the ARD and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Aml of religious parties, concluded its one-day meeting here on Friday, keeping both options with regard to the October elections open — participating in them as well as boycotting them — depending upon the electorate’s mood in the emerging political situation. “Any decision on either side at this juncture may backfire if the people don’t support it”, APC sources explained the rationale for the ‘indecision’.

APC chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan presided over the meeting hosted by the Jamaat-i-Islami at its Mansoora headquarters. This was the first political activity in which JI amir Qazi Husain Ahmed took part after being released as a result of a legal battle from a four-month arrest in a Feb 1999 case.

The APC sources recalled that the defunct Pakistan National Alliance had succeeded in effectively boycotting the 1977 provincial elections, only two days after contesting the National Assembly polls, because the voters were with the then opposition alliance and responding to every call from the leadership.

The steering committee met only a day after a decision by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Aml that religious parties would take an active part in the elections from a single platform. “The government so far has not accepted any of the seven points of the APC and apparently there is no possibility of the government changing its attitude in the future. But the MMA, some parties of which are members of the APC steering committee, have already decided to contest elections. How will you defend the decision?, a reporter asked Jamaat-i-Islami amir Qazi Husain Ahmed.

“We’ll take part in the elections after having our demands met,” replied the JI leader.

He said if necessary the boycott decision could be taken even on the last day.

“Elections are a part of the political process. We’ll not be coming up to people’s expectations if we immediately announce that we’ll stay away from the elections. The question of boycotting the elections is rather premature as October (the month of polls) is far away. We have to take the people and our demands together,” Qazi Husain said. Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said the steering committee would apprise the democratic nations of the world of the tactics Gen Pervez Musharraf was using to ‘adulterate’ the parliamentary system and concentrate all powers in his person.

He said an effort would be made to get moral support from the democratic nations for the restoration of a genuine democratic order.

What Gen Musharraf was calling transfer of power would not be even sharing of power, the veteran leader suspected.

The Nawabzada said that like the ARD, the APC would also celebrate the Pakistan Day on March 23 by holding a public meeting in Lahore. The meeting, he said, would mark the advent of a new phase of struggle which would continue till the government accepted all demands of the APC and the ARD.

The APC chief rejected all extra-constitutional steps taken so far by the government and attacked the rulers for their comprehensive failure on all fronts. He called for the acceptance of the seven-point charter of the APC and the ARD in the larger national interest.

He said he had formed a jurists committee which would challenge before the Supreme Court all illegal and unconstitutional steps imposed by the rulers.

The committee comprises Justices (retd) Sharif Husain Bukhari and Khizr Hayat and advocates Raja Mahmood Akhtar and Raja Haq Nawaz.

He demanded an end to the ban on political activity.