November 16, 2002	Saturday	Ramazan 10, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: The Grand National Alliance and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, who were expected to meet on Friday evening failed to do so for their own reasons.

Liaqat Baloch chairman parliamentary committee of the MMA had in a television talk on Thursday night hinted that a meeting would take place between the two sides on Friday to finalize a draft agreement to become the basis of a coalition government.

While the MMA sources had no idea whether a meeting will take place even on Saturday, Mohammad Ali Durrani secretary-general of the National Alliance said that there were chances of another meeting, which he claimed could be a decisive one.

He attributed the postponement of the meeting to the late arrival of the MMA leaders in the town as Fazl arrived around 9.30pm and Qazi Hussain Ahmed parliamentary leader of the Alliance was expected to arrive late in the night.

A spokesman of the MMA told Dawn that there was enough time for a meeting and we expect that the two sides will be able to meet on Saturday or after that but before the election of speaker of the National Assembly.

However, the insiders stated that the GNA, particularly its PML-Q component deliberately postponed the meeting after the MMA’s taking a tough line on the LFO and challenging the president’s legal position as Chaudhry Shujaat was told by the power brokers in the day that the military regime cannot compromise on these questions.