12 November 2004	Friday	28 Ramazan 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: A meeting of the heads of component parties of Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) will be held on November 20 in Islamabad, a source in the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) told Dawn on Thursday.

The source said the time and venue for the meeting would be decided in a couple of days.

The meeting has been convened to chalk out the strategy for the protest movement to be launched by the combined opposition against the military government. According to the source, the heads of the ARD component parties will also finalize the strategy for the possible cooperation with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) in the anti-government protest.

It may be mentioned that both the ARD and the MMA had already announced that they would launch a protest movement against the Musharraf regime after the passage of the uniform bill from parliament. The MMA had even announced the schedule of public meetings, starting from Karachi on November 28. On the other hand, the ARD has not yet decided about the date for launching of its own agitation movement.

The recent statements of the ARD leaders and the MMA showed that the two alliances were ready to cooperate with each other in the protest movement.

Meanwhile, a joint meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and the Federal Council of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has been convened at the party's central secretariat on November 19. ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim will preside over the meeting.