ISLAMABAD, June 2: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on Wednesday contacted the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) to seek its cooperation inside the parliament "with a purpose to give a tough time to the government during the forthcoming budget session," informed sources told Dawn.

According to the sources, the ARD leadership had refused to cooperate with the MMA inside or outside the parliament due to what it called the past record of the MMA when its leadership deceived the ARD by striking a deal with the government on the Legal Framework Order (LFO).

The latest contact was made when Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman, along with MNA Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, reached ARD Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim's farm house and sought ARD's cooperation with the MMA. The MMA leaders also met Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Khwaja Saad Rafiq.

When the ARD leaders refused to extend any kind of cooperation to the MMA, Maulana Fazl sought ARD's support at least in the forthcoming budget session. However, the sources in the ARD told Dawn that the ARD leadership had told the MMA that it could no more trust the religious alliance due to its past role.

Later, a spokesman for the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar said Makhdoom Amin Fahim had accepted a request of Maulana Fazl for a meeting out of politeness.

"The courtesy call by the MMA leaders on Mr Fahim notwithstanding, there is absolutely no change in the position of the PPP on the issue of the Leader of the Opposition," Mr Babar said.

In a press statement, Mr Babar said the PPP considered it necessary to reiterate its position so that the courtesy call on Mr Fahim was not misinterpreted by any one as an indication of any change in the party's stance on the issue of the Leader of the Opposition.

"There has been no change, there can be none and there will be none in the PPP's position on the illegality and immorality of denying the Leader of the Opposition's status to Makhdoom Amin Fahim," the PPP leader said.

He said the party believed that just as the elections 2002 were "patently fictitious and just as Gen Musharraf's sneaking into the Presidency through a rigged referendum was brazenly fictitious, so has the recent nomination of the Leader of the Opposition by the Speaker been outrageously fictitious.