November 2, 2002	Saturday	Sha’aban 26,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Secretary General of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the alliance’s candidate for prime minister, on Friday claimed that the MMA had made some progress with the ARD on the question of forming a coalition government and that the PPP had assured to back him in the run for the PM’s office.

Talking to newsmen after holding a meeting with PPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who was elected the parliamentary leader as well as made the party’s nominee for the prime minister’s slot, the Maulana said: “We have forwarded to the ARD component parties another formula of power-sharing”.

It appeared that the MMA had decided not to go along with the PML-Q after the latter announced Zafarullah Jamali as its candidate for the PM’s office, which was the bone of contention between the two parties in their talks so far.

The PPP leader has offered the MMA its support in the PM’s election by way of casting their votes in MMA’s favour and then sitting on the opposition benches, he said.

Earlier, it was said that the MMA had decided to cast vote for the majority party’s prime ministerial candidate and then sit on the opposition benches.

Giving reasons for coming closer to the ARD’s point of view, he said: “We have serious reservations over the foreign policy perception of PML-Q as well as on the question of LFO. Hence, we are endeavouring to reach a consensus with the ARD.”

He claimed an announcement on these lines was expected in the next twenty-four hours.

When asked about MMA’s concurrence on making Chaudhry Shujaat a coordinator to negotiate with the government on touchy LFO issue, the JUI chief said it was done to remove the chances of a deadlock emerging in the transfer of power.

He denied that the MMA would cast vote for the prime minister of another party if it was unable to muster sufficient support for its own nominee.

To a query, he said the ARD was in the process of thinking through the fresh formula forwarded by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and may come back with a positive response soon.