LAHORE, May 29: Information Minister Nisar A. Memon on Wednesday extended a fresh invitation to ARD president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan for a consultative meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.
The minister, however, did not accept any of the demands being made, as preconditions for talks, by the ARD, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal or other organizations in the all-party conference.
There is no possibility for the appointment of a new army chief and an interim government or the replacement of the Chief Election Commissioner, the minister said while talking to Dawn after his two-hour meeting with the veteran leader. He also ruled out the possibility of the government approaching former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, leaders of the PPP and the PML, respectively.
Parties in the ARD, the MMA and the APC had boycotted the first round of consultative talks with Gen Musharraf to mount pressure on him to accept these demands if he was serious in talks with opposition.
PPP’s Senior Vice-Chairman Makhdoom Amin Faheem and PML(N) Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq are scheduled to meet the Nawabzada on Thursday to formulate their response to the invitation. The ARD chief will also consult the MMA and APC parties before conveying their point-of-view to the government.
According to the minister, the consultative meeting scheduled for Friday, will be delayed for a few days because of President Musharraf’s visit to Almaty, Kazakhstan, to participate in a regional conference.
The consultative meeting was planned to take political leaders into confidence on how India was trying to mount pressure on Pakistan and seek their advice what the government should do to de-escalate the tensions and defend the country in case the enemy imposed a war.
During the two-hour meeting, the Nawabzada apprised the minister of multi-party alliance’s “demand” that a full-time army chief should be appointed in view of the dangerous situation on the eastern borders. He also explained the rationale for an interim government and an independent election commission to ensure free and fair elections.
All these demands had no nexus with the one-point agenda — situation on the eastern borders — President Musharraf wanted to discuss with political leaders, the minister said, explaining why the government was not willing to consider them.
The Nawabzada said the demands he had put before the minister were national, not personal.
