ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy will announce the next phase of its protest movement after Eid, says ARD Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, Mr Jhagra said the ARD could not finalize the plan for holding public meetings against the government in its last meeting held in Sargodha. However, he said, it was decided that the provincial chapters of the alliance would be asked to suggest dates and venues for the meetings to be held after Eid.

Mr Jhagra dispelled the impression that the opposition was not serious in launching a movement against the government due to the ongoing efforts for national reconciliation.

He said the government was creating an impression about reconciliation to divide the opposition. "If the government is serious in reconciliation, it should invite former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto to the country to play their political role," he said.

Mr Jhagra admitted that so far the ARD's movement had failed to create an impact, but expressed the hope that the next phase would be more organized and effective and it would turn into a full-fledged agitation.

He said there were chances that the ARD and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal would agree on a code of conduct to jointly launch a movement. He was of the view that the arrest of the acting president of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, had badly affected the ARD's movement.

He said the intelligence agencies had decided to arrest Mr Hashmi after his speech at the first successful public meeting of the ARD in Peshawar. In reply to a question, he said the MMA's strength could not be ignored but the ARD was not depending on its street power.

He said the MMA's leadership was not invited to the ARD's last public meeting in Sargodha. He said the ARD would launch its campaign even if the MMA did not join hands with it.

Mr Jhagra said the MMA's leadership had realized its mistake of supporting the 17th Amendment and now it was also talking about restoration of the 1973 Constitution to its original form.