19 November 2004	Friday	06 Shawwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: The political activities, which remained suspended for the past 15 days due to Eidul Fitr, will resume in the capital on Friday with a joint meeting of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and the Federal Council (FC) of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) at the party's central secretariat.

ARD Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim will preside over the meeting, which is expected to be attended by all the central and provincial office-bearers of the party.

The sources told Dawn that the party would finalize its plan for an anti-government campaign which would then be discussed at the ARD meeting scheduled to be held on Saturday (tomorrow).

The sources said the meeting would also discuss the possibility of future cooperation with the Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal (MMA) in its forthcoming anti-government campaign.

They said the party leaders would also make a decision whether or not to participate in the public meetings of the MMA. The sources told Dawn that there were differences in the ranks of the PPP and the PML-N over the possibility of all- out cooperation with the MMA keeping in view the past experience when the religious alliance left the ARD in the midstream and signed an agreement with the government on the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO).

The sources said the ARD would also face resistance in this regard from other small nationalist parties, presently supporting it inside and outside the parliament.

On the other hand, senior ARD leaders like Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Raja Pervez Ashraf had hinted that the ARD was ready to join hands with the MMA in its anti- government campaign.

The sources said the senior leaders of both the ARD and the MMA were of the view that it was time that all opposition groups forgot the minor political disputes and united on one platform to remove the "illegal and unconstitutional" regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Talking to Dawn, PPP Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf said the ARD and the MMA should unite on one-point agenda of restoration of democracy and sovereignty of the parliament. He also expressed the hope that the ARD would participate in the first public meeting of the MMA in Karachi on November 28.

The sources said the ARD would announce its own schedule of public meetings and protest rallies in different cities starting from December.