April 25, 2002	Thursday	Safar 11, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, April 24: While the legal battle between the opposition and the government on the constitutionality of the referendum is being fought in the Supreme Court and the bench may take a few more days to give its verdict, parties in the ARD, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Aml, the PONM, the bar representatives and the HRCP are set to meet in Lahore on Friday to reject the referendum and give the electorate a call to boycott what they describe as an extra-constitutional exercise.

The meeting, named all-party conference, was first scheduled to be held at the Nicholson Road residence of ARD president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan but because of the inadequate space to accommodate all invitees the venue has been shifted to the Samanabad residence of Solidarity Front Chairman Naveed Malik.

According to ARD Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, the PPP has confirmed its participation in the APC.

The APC will be followed by a public meeting to be held at the Minar-i-Pakistan lawns on Saturday.

The two events will be the last ditch effort on the part of the anti-Musharraf parties to keep the electorate away from the referendum and deprive the military ruler’s bid to extend his term by another five years of any credibility.

The PPP’s presence in the APC will be indicative of a shift in its policy in view of its earlier refusal to sit with religious parties in a similar moot hosted by the Nawabzada on Dec 27 despite the fact that it was in agreement with the agenda of the conference. The senior politician had taken the PPP’s abstention as a no-confidence in him and, in protest, had resigned as the ARD president.

The PPP had, subsequently, explained its point of view to the Nawabzada after which he had agreed to resume the chairmanship of the alliance.

It is said that the PPP has concluded that parties of all shades of opinion will have to make concerted efforts against Gen Musharraf to force him to restore democratic order and it is for this reason that it has agreed to sit in the APC in the company of religious parties.

The parties in the MMA have also changed their thinking about the PPP and the PML(N) and are no longer criticizing them at their meetings and statements. Some leaders of the MMA constituents have until recently been branding the parties of Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif “corrupt, two faces of the same coin”.

According to Mr Jhagra, the APC will confine itself to the issue of referendum and no other subject will be taken up by the participants.

The ARD is making arrangements for the public meeting to be held at the Minar-i-Pakistan on Saturday. All efforts are being made to ensure that the participants outnumber those addressed at the same place by President Musharraf on April 9.

Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif have issued directions to their respective parties to make the public meeting a great success.

PML(N) chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, who has been keeping away from all ARD meetings in the past, will for the first time participate in the alliance meeting at the Minar-i-Pakistan.

Mr Jhagra said that Mr Raja was due to reach Lahore on Thursday to participate in the APC and the ARD meeting.