March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 10: The supreme council of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal nominated alliance president Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani as its parliamentary leader in Senate.

The religio-political alliance which on Sunday met its president Maulana Noorani in the chair decided to finalize strategy on taking of oath by its senators elect under amended Constitution in another meeting on March 11 after taking other political parties in confidence.

The alliance will also nominate its candidates for chairman and deputy chairman in the said meeting.

Discussing the controversial LFO, the MMA stressed upon the Jamali government to begin meaningful talks with the opposition parties.

It also decided to hold third million march at Lahore on March 23 to be followed by rallies at Peshawar, Quetta and Faisalabad for which dates will be announced later on.

Briefing newsmen Liaqat Baloch MMA parliamentary committee chairman and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed deputy secretary general said that no breakthrough was made on issue of LFO in the Peshawar meeting of alliance’s top leaders with prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. The alliance will however brief other opposition parties on whatever discussions taken place in the said meeting.

“It was a social gathering taking place on the sidelines of a dinner hosted by Frontier chief minister”, they said.

The alliance will however brief the leaders of other combined opposition parties on whatever transpired in these informal talks.

The council, they said, expressed satisfaction over the joint stand taken by the combined opposition on LFO and expressed its determination not to give up the campaign in the national assembly until the government comes to understand gravity of the situation and agrees to withdraw the controversial piece of legislation.

The meeting was attended among others by MMA parliamentary leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, secretary general Maulana Fazlur Rahman, vice-president Maulana Samiul Haq, Jamiat Ahle Hadith chief Prof Sajid Meer, JI secretary general Syed Munawar Hasan, Tehrik-i-Islami’s Allama Abdul Jalil Naqvi, MMA’s parliamentary committee chairman Liaqat Baloch and deputy secretary-general Hafiz Hussain Ahmed.