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| 13 January 2004 | Tuesday | 20 Ziqa'ad 1424 |
ARD likely to take part in Senate proceedings
ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) is likely to give up its policy of desk-thumping and boycotting the Senate sessions and instead take part in the proceedings of the 9th session of the upper house starting from Tuesday, sources told Dawn here on Monday.
They said after the passage of the 17th Amendment by parliament, the ARD leaders had decided to change the strategy of protest and instead of boycotting the proceedings it believed it would be politically more profitable to remain in the house and use parliamentary tactics to give a tough time to the government.
However, sources said, final decision whether to participate in the house proceedings would be taken by the alliance after consulting other opposition parties minus the MMA in a meeting to be held before the Senate session.
They recalled that after the ouster of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) from the joint opposition, the ARD had formed a new opposition alliance, Democratic Alliance, with the support of nationalist parties of Balochistan and the NWFP.
They said the ARD leadership had decided not to cooperate with the MMA inside and outside parliament in future as the religious alliance did not take them into confidence before finalizing a deal with the government on the LFO.
A PPP senator, when contacted, said it would be interesting to see the MMA parliamentarians speaking in support of the proposed National Security Council (NSC) when the bill is presented before parliament.
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