ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: The first meeting of the heads of ARD component parties after the death of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan will be held here on Tuesday to elect a new chairman of the alliance and to devise a new protest strategy against the Legal Framework Order and the president’s uniform.

ARD Acting Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim will preside over the meeting, which will be held at the central secretariat of the Pakistan People’s Party.

According to sources in the alliance, leaders of the PPP and the PML-N had been making hectic consultations for the past one week in an effort to develop a consensus on the issue of new ARD chief.

The sources said Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif also talked to each other as well with their representatives in Pakistan several times in the past week.

The sources said there were chances that in Tuesday’s meeting Makhdoom Amin Fahim would be asked to continue as acting chairman of the alliance for the time being and the election of the new chief would be postponed till a “proper time.”

Meanwhile, the PML-N on Monday constituted a five-member committee to hold consultations with the PPP and other ARD parties over the election of new alliance chief and its future strategy. The committee will be headed by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, while its other members include Sardar Mehtab Khan, Sardar Yaqoob Nasir, Khwaja Saad Rafiq and Imdad Chandio.

A source in the PML-N told Dawn that the party would ask the PPP to also constitute a committee for the similar purpose. He said it was possible that the alliance leaders might not be able to elect new chief in Tuesday’s meeting.

A senior PPP leader said the formation of a committee by the PML-N showed that their meeting remained inconclusive on the issue of new ARD chief. “This is not a good sign for the future of the alliance,” said another ARD office-bearer.

A proposal to appoint jailed PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari as the new ARD chief and PML-N leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi as the acting chief is also under active consideration of some PPP members. Those in favour of Asif Zardari are of the opinion that since Mr Zardari is in jail, he will only be a symbolic chief, while Javed Hashmi will be active in the field.