18 November 2004	Thursday	05 Shawwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: Several important leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-N spent their Eid days in Jeddah with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and party president Shahbaz Sharif, sources told Dawn here on Wednesday.

They said some of the leaders had recently returned from Jeddah after offering their condolences to the Sharif brothers on the demise of their father Mian Mohammad Sharif while a majority were still in Saudi Arabia and were expected to return in a couple of days.

Among the PML-N leaders who met the Sharif brothers in Jeddah are party chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, acting parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, MNA Tehmina Daultana, parliamentary leader in the Senate Ishaq Dar, party's central information secretary Siddiqul Farooque, MNA Mian Jalil Sharqpuri, former NWFP chief minister Pir Sabir Shah, former MNA Rana Tanveer, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, MPA Malik Abrar, MPA Chaudhry Ayaz, MPA Raja Arshad, former MPA Sardar Naseem and several leaders from Sindh and the NWFP.

MNA Khawaja Asif and opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman were already in Jeddah at the time of the death of Mian Mohammad Sharif.tion, the PML-N leaders also discussed the political situation in Pakistan.

They particularly discussed the strategy for the forthcoming protest movement of the opposition parties against the government, the sources said. The visit of the PML-N leaders to Jeddah has acquired great significance because the two major opposition alliances - the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) - have already convened their separate meetings to finalize plans for the agitation movement against the military government.

The ARD meeting will be held in Islamabad on November 20 while the Supreme Council of the MMA will meet in Karachi on November 24. Earlier, MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and opposition leader in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rahman had visited the Sharif brothers in Jeddah and sought the ARD's cooperation for the protest movement against the Musharraf regime.