ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: A joint meeting of the cabinet and National Security Council (NSC), which was scheduled to be held on Monday, has been cancelled due to unknown reasons, sources in the cabinet division revealed on Sunday.

They said the meeting had been cancelled on the instructions of President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Mentioning the possibilities of cancellation of the meeting, the sources added, the government had urged political parties to resolve the deadlock till Saturday, but apparently political parties had failed to do so.

The sources said government was anticipating that a positive result would come out of the meetings being held among the political parties, but their dialogues had remained inconclusive so far.

The joint meeting of the cabinet and the NSC had to discuss any expected decision of the political parties regarding formation of new government, but the meetings of the political parties could not reach any conclusion.

They said now the government wanted to give some more time to the politicians to overcome prevailing political crisis in the country.

When contacted, information secretary Anwar Mehmood confirmed the cancellation of the meeting on the orders of the President Musharraf. However, he was reluctant to disclose the reasons of cancellation. “Such decisions are taken by the president and they are never disclosed,” he asserted.

Replying to a question, the information secretary said no new date for the joint meeting of the cabinet and the NSC had been fixed.

Sources from Pakistan Muslim League-Q revealed that Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, the PML-Q candidate for the slot of prime minister met senior army officials at General Head Quarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi on Saturday.

They said Mr Jamali remained in the GHQ for over five hours. His meeting with senior army officials has reportedly created some speculations in the political circles.