November 6, 2002	Wednesday	Sha’aban 30,1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal announced on Tuesday that they had reached an understanding on the formation of a coalition government but delayed naming of their joint candidates for prime minister and speaker.

Speaking at a news conference, ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, People’s Party Parliamentarians chief Makhdoom Amin Fahim and MMA secretary-general and candidate for prime minister’s slot Maulana Fazlur Rahman said they were not in a hurry to finalize composition of their coalition government before reaching an agreement on a number of contentious issues.

Earlier, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan presided over a joint ARD-MMA meeting at his residence which lasted for over two hours. The meeting was attended by ARD secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Raja Pervez Ashraf, MMA leaders Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed left the venue as other leaders came to speak at the news conference. A large number of newsmen including, foreign media, kept waiting for the joint news conference for about two hours.

To a question, Makhdoom Amin Fahim said: “We held positive talks and we feel that there is still a room for more talks on various issues and hence a final announcement about joint candidates may take some time, maybe tomorrow or the day after.”

He told a questioner that there was no deadlock and the parties would soon come up with a unified stand on all issues, including floating joint candidates for the top offices.

Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said: “There are no differences among the two alliances and the talks are being held in a cordial manner on all issues. After completion of talks both the sides will announce their joint candidates as well as a strategy to run their coalition government.”

He said both the sides had reached a firm stand and felt that they could give a solid government and run both the National Assembly and senate with mutual cooperation.

He expressed the hope that Makhdoom Amin Fahim would be able to finalize all details by discussing issues with his party leadership and would come up with his party’s support to the idea of coalition government.

Nawabzada claimed that there was no fundamental differences between the two sides and they had reached a broad understanding on most of the issues.

Speaking on the occasion, Maulana Fazlur Rahman said there were a dire need of reaching an understanding on some of the articles of the LFO.

To a question whether both the sides were not taking too much time as the inaugural session of the National Assembly was only a couple of days away, the Maulana said the session had not so far been notified and hence its start on Nov 8 was doubtful.

Fazlur Rahman said: “We want to discuss and reach a conclusion on a number of issues like the LFO, foreign policy, economic policy etc before announcing details of our coalition.”

When asked whether the understanding with ARD meant that the MMA had given up its talks with the PML-Q, he said the MMA still wanted a national consensus on all issues before formation of a coalition government and it would continue its dialogues with all political parties to achieve this objective.

Earlier, a visit by Makhdoom Amin Fahim to the MMA leaders Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rahman could not take place.

However, Amin Fahim paid a brief visit to Maulana Fazlur Rahman after he left the MMA office.

After the talks, Fahim said the candidate for the prime minister would be from the ARD. Maulana Fazlur Rahman said the MMA gave more importance to issues like the LFO and foreign policy, rather than the distribution of high offices.