LAHORE, Feb 24: There is little possibility of any cooperation between the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal for struggle against the government in the foreseeable future as the two alliances have different priorities and divergent views on basic issues.
ARD Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said on Tuesday that his alliance would not like to join hands with the MMA unless the latter supported the call for fresh elections under the supervision of a government of national consensus.
MMA's acting president Qazi Husain Ahmed, on the other hand, said confrontation against the government at this stage was not in the national interest and all parties should first evolve consensus to save the country's nuclear programme and bring an end to the operation the government had launched in tribal areas.
He said that he would not like to reject out of hand the ARD's point of view on the need for fresh elections and would prefer the religious parties coalition discuss the matter in detail before formulating its formal response.
But he made it clear: "We want to avoid confrontation against the government as this will benefit only the enemies of the country. The ARD leaders are putting the real issues on the back burner. The national security should have primacy", he said, demanding that the operation going on in tribal areas should be halted immediately.
He warned the government of the disastrous consequences in case the people of the tribal areas decided to resist the operation. In his opinion, all parties should sit together to see how the government and the army could be taken out of what he called US influence under which reckless decisions were being taken.
The ARD secretary-general said the security of the country would remain in danger as long as the present rulers were in power. Mr Jhagra said a democratic government would be in a better position to save the country's interests.
Observers say that the two groupings, which have been closely coordinating with each other till the adoption of the 17th constitutional amendment a couple of months ago, will continue to work from their respective platforms - for their separate goals.
MMA Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rehman had proposed a few days ago that the two alliances should work together in the larger national interest. He had also said that the MMA was not opposed to the ARD's movement against President Musharraf, although it was also not part of it as the drive had been launched by the rival alliance without taking the MMA into confidence.
"If the MMA is not willing to endorse our demand for fresh polls, there will be no justification for us to sit together with the religious alliance", the ARD secretary-general said while talking to Dawn on Tuesday.
He said the religious alliance had dealt a serious blow to a great national cause by facilitating Gen Musharraf to get himself elected president and helping the ruling party to have the LFO passed.
Mr Jhagra said the ARD would review the situation at its forthcoming meeting and take appropriate decisions. He indicated that the alliance would have to delay its March 7 public meeting at Sahiwal as the PPP wanted some more time to make preparations. The PML-N and the PPP leaders are discussing the matter and a new date of the meeting was expected to be announced on Wednesday (today).
