December 20, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 15, 1423

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LAHORE, Dec 19: The People’s Party Parliamentarians and the PML-N, whose disunity had enabled Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to become prime minister with a single-vote majority, decided on Thursday to work as a joint opposition in the National Assembly.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), which was an irritant for the PPP until the two cooperated in the Sindh Assembly, would also be approached to make the opposition more formidable.

These decisions were taken at a meeting of the ARD held under the chairmanship of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan.

Being the head of the bigger party, Makhdoom Amin Faheem was considered for the post of opposition leader. While Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, acting president of the PML-N may be leader of the joint parliamentary party.

A formal announcement in this regard would be made later, PPP sources said.

When a newsmen asked Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan about the possibility of the ARD or any of its components voting in favour of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali when he will seek a vote of confidence on Dec 30, the ARD chief replied: “Question does not rise.”

“The government is a product of massive rigging. We don’t recognize it. We’d work for the objectives set by the ARD,” he said.

He said the ARD would launch a mass mobilization campaign and jointly contest the by-elections.

The Mohajir Qaumi Movement was given membership of the ARD and a committee has been formed at the meeting to examine applications from half a dozen other unnamed parties desirous of joining the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy.

The ARD president lashed out at the government for giving the Muttahida Qaumi Movement representation in the set-up, saying that the Muttahida did not believe in the 1973 Constitution. Also deplorable, he said, was the fact that the governor-designate of Sindh was an absconder, involved in several cases.

The PML-Jinnah, which is extending cooperation to the PML-Q, was also represented at the meeting. When some of the participants brought the matter to the notice of the ARD president, he said: “The party would be asked to explain its position.”