November 8, 2003	Saturday	Ramazan 12, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: Combined opposition in the National Assembly decided on Friday to convene a meeting of the heads of all opposition parties on Monday to chalk out a joint strategy to deal with the situation arising out of the arrest of ARD president Javed Hashmi.

The decision had been taken in view of the fact that the lower house session was expected to be prorogued in the next week and the opposition would need an alternative platform to continue its protest against the LFO, military operation in the tribal areas and arrest of Javed Hashmi and for all these issues a joint strategy would be needed.

Speaking at a joint news conference at the parliament house cafeteria, acting ARD president Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said: “A decision to intensify our protest against the regime will be taken in consultation with other opposition parties.”

Chaudhry Nisar said the country was passing through a critical juncture where the opposition parties had launched a struggle for the restoration of democracy as against the military-led government which had embarked upon a path of self-destruction.

He alleged that the government was deliberately taking the situation to a point of no return although it could have easily defused it if it had wanted to and if it was sincere and serious about the national interests.

He said while the prime minister was sitting in the house to keep his coalition members from breaking the quorum, Gen Musharraf was going on foreign trips every week or so.

Under whose mandate Gen Musharraf was undertaking such high-profile foreign tours, the ARD leader asked and added that despite the claims of a successful visit of China, no accord could be signed on the promised nuclear power plant during Gen Musharraf’s stay in Beijing which says a lot about his ability to win friends in foreign countries and influence people abroad.

Speaking on the occasion, MMA deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch criticized National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain for not issuing a production order for Javed Hashmi.

He alleged that Mr Hashmi was being kept in a solitary confinement and was not being allowed to meet his family. He was also not being allowed to take medicines.

Mr Baloch said such tactics would only add to the determination of the combined opposition to continue with even more vigour its struggle for the revival of the 1973 Constitution.

The MMA leader said the European Union and the Commonwealth had acknowledged the opposition’s point of view that the present setup could not be regarded as democratic in the presence of the LFO.

Even US President George Bush, he claimed, had made it clear to Gen Musharraf that Washington was not prepared to accept the system designed by the general as democratic.

PPP’s Raja Parvez Ashraf said the arrest of Javed Hashmi had vindicated the opposition’s claim that parliament, the prime minister, the interior minister and the speaker were all powerless.

He described the arrest of Mr Hashmi as an attempt to divert the attention of the opposition from the LFO, but warned that the opposition was capable of tackling both the issues at the same time and giving the government a tough time on both counts.

MMA leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed criticized constitutional expert Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada’s statement that the LFO had become part of the Constitution and said a case would be filed against Mr Pirzada for subverting the Constitution under Article 6.

He demanded of the government to arrest the killers of MNA Maulana Azam Tariq. He said the opposition meeting on Monday would also discuss the launching of a movement against the government’s failure to arrest the slain MP’s murderers.