May 17, 2002	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 4, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, May 16: The recently-formed six-party pro-Musharraf National Alliance has started approaching splinter groups, regional parties, and religious groups asking them to join the alliance.

This was disclosed here on Wednesday during a briefing by the alliance’s secretary-general Mohammad Ali Durrani on the occasion of the inauguration of the alliance’s media centre here on Wednesday.

Aila Malik, Millat Party’s assistant secretary-general, and Syed Mehmud Hashmi information secretary of the alliance were also present on the occasion.

Without admitting that the election commission in its present shape was not as independent as it should be, Durrani said that maximum empowerment of the EC would be in the interest of the military regime.

Complaining about the “arrogance” of PML(QA) the N.A.leader said “they may in due course realize the importance of joining hands with like-minded political forces.”

He was upbeat about the progress made by the component parties of the alliance as according to him “hundreds” of political workers had started joining them.

When asked whether the alliance would press the Musharraf government to keep Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif out of electoral process, Durrani replied in the negative, and said on the contrary we want that they be brought back and be tried for their misdeeds.

He went on to say: “Believe me no foreign country will support and invest in Pakistan if any one of them (BB or NS) came to power as the whole world is aware of their wrongdoings.

He dismissed the impression that Gen Musharraf’s most important worry was Benazir, saying that Ms Bhutto had been sending emissaries and offering to cut a deal with the government.