October 13, 2002	Sunday	Sha'aban 6, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: The country’s key political forces on Saturday appeared setting out for power-sharing moves after the elections denied majority to any single party in the National Assembly.

The most significant post-election development was the readiness shown by the PPP to work for a coalition government and a call for national reconciliation despite its complaints of pre-polls rigging and manipulation of results.

The results for 269 of the 272 contested seats of the 342-seat National Assembly gave 76 seats to the PML-Q, 63 to the PPP, 45 to the MMA, 29 to independents and 14 to the PML-N.

The rest of the seats went to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (13), National Alliance (12) and other smaller groups.

PPP Parliamentarians chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim returned on Saturday after talks with PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto in London to announce his plans to begin talks with all parties with an “open mind” about the formation of the future government.

Mr Fahim, a possible PPP prime ministerial candidate, said: “Mohtarma (Bhutto) has agreed with me that we should move forward and form a government.”

The PML-Q, whose electoral success was marred by the defeat of its president Mian Mohammad Azhar, welcomed the move and said it was also ready for talks with an “open mind”.

The MMA, too, said that leaders of its six component parties would meet in the next few days to plan their future strategy.

“We will see in the light of our manifesto which people are close to us,” Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed, whose party is a major MMA component, told a private television channel.

But he said it was necessary that MMA would try for government formation. “We will try to fulfil pledges we made to the nation and Allah. Whoever cooperate with us (in this) we will cooperate with them.”