01 October 2004	Friday	15 Shaban 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: A meeting of senior Pakistan Muslim League-N leaders will be held here on Friday to take a decision on a request formally made by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) for cooperation in its possible movement against Gen Pervez Musharraf in case he does not hang up his uniform by December 31.

A source in the PML-N told Dawn on Thursday that the formal request for cooperation was made by MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed during a meeting with former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif in Jeddah last week.

The source said Mr Sharif referred the matter to the local leadership of the party to take a final decision and told Qazi Hussain that he could not take any decision on his own. He said the PML-N was also bound to follow the ARD decisions.

Acting on the directive, Raja Zafarul Haq, the party chairman, has convened a meeting of the Coordination Committee of the party on Friday to discuss the matter. PML-N information secretary Siddiqul Farooque, when contacted, said whatever decision was taken by the PML-N, it would again be discussed in the ARD meeting.

"We will take a decision on our own and then the matter will be discussed with other ARD parties," he said, adding that the final decision would only be announced from the ARD platform.

When asked about the chances of cooperation with the MMA, Mr Farooque said: "A time may come when, on one single issue, we (the MMA and the ARD) may join hands keeping aside the differences."

However, he said, the PML-N's policy was very consistent on the issue and the MMA leadership had already been informed about it. He said the PML-N did not recognize Gen Musharraf as president, with or without uniform.

Moreover, the PML-N also did not recognize him as the army chief. He said this stance of the party had already been made clear by Mr Sharif during his meeting with the MMA chief in Jeddah.

Mr Farooque said there was no change in the party's stand that if the MMA wanted to have cooperation with the ARD then the religious parties' alliance would first have to seek an apology from the nation for extending its support to the government in the passage of the 17th Amendment from parliament.

He was of the view that it was the moral duty of the MMA to seek an apology from the nation, conceding that the decision to support the 17th Amendment was a blunder.