LAHORE, Aug 31: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) has decided to take its anti-Musharraf drive to the district level, and alliance chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan has cut short his foreign visit because of the “extraordinary situation” in the country.

The district bodies of ARD had been directed to make preparations for holding protest meetings for intensifying the movement that was launched at a public meeting in Lahore on Aug 14, according to a message from London on Sunday.

Initially, public meetings will be held in Quetta, Karachi, Peshawar, and then in Faisalabad, Multan, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Gujranwala, Sargodha and Mansehra.

The ARD organization in Quetta, Karachi and Peshawar will soon announce a schedule for the meetings.

Seeing the fast-changing political situation in the country, the Nawabzada has shortened his foreign visit by excluding France and Germany from his itinerary and will now reach Jeddah from London on Sept 7 instead of Sept 15 as planned earlier.

During his five-day stay in Jeddah, the ARD chief will meet former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif besides performing Umra.

PML-N president and former Punjab chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif also talked to the senior politician on phone from New York and assured him of all-out cooperation on the LFO issue.

Husain Nawaz, the eldest son of Nawaz Sharif, has been accompanying the Nawabzada during all of his political engagements in London.

The ARD chief is likely to meet PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto during his short stay in Dubai while travelling from London to Jeddah on Sept 7.

Meanwhile, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan told reporters in London that if Gen Musharraf dissolved the assemblies, he would be accepting his defeat and signing his political death warrants.

He alleged that Gen Musharraf was using the threat of dissolution of assemblies to blackmail parliamentarians.

He said that in case of new elections, the ARD would formulate its strategy in consultation with other national parties. However, it would demand formation of a new Election Commission as the alliance did not trust the incumbent commission, he added.

Saying that the opposition and the political situation in the country had been discussed in two meetings of the corps commanders, he wondered under what authority the army officers had done so.