28 January 2005	Friday	17 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The Independent Democratic Group (IDG), a political alliance formed on Tuesday, plans to gear up its activities and hold a series of meetings in the coming months to gain support of more political figures and thereby strengthen its bargaining position in joining other political parties or alliance, sources said.

According to insiders, the IDG has been given an indication that, under pressure of circumstances, the military and civil establishment may be forced to hold general elections by the end of the year by postponing the local government polls.

The IDG has, therefore, decided to accelerate its activities in order to increase its bargaining position for the election. The ultimate target of the group, which is expected to elect veteran politician Begum Abida Hussain as its convener in its next meeting, will be to achieve better bargaining position while joining one of the major political alliances or parties.

Informed sources told Dawn on Thursday that the IDG will hold its next meeting in Lahore on Feb 7 in which prominent figures, including Justice (retd) Dr Javed Iqbal, former parliamentary secretary Rao Qaiser, former bureaucrat Shahid Kardar, president of Lahore Bar Association Ahmed Awais, Tariq Chaudhry and others were likely to join the alliance.

The next meeting will be held in Peshawar on Feb 27, followed by one in Karachi on March 7 and another in Quetta later that month, where the group would try to hold talks with Baloch leaders to seek a negotiated settlement of the Balochistan issue.

For the purpose of talks with Baloch leaders, a three-member committee, to be headed by former NA speaker Elahi Bakhsh Soomro, is to be formed. Talking to Dawn, Syed Fakhr Imam said that the group will discuss political issues and take far-reaching decisions about all national issues, including that of Balochistan.

He said the group will advocate more provincial autonomy, especially in the context of Balochistan, to end anti-centre sentiments. Some members of the group, including former speaker Syed Fakhr Imam, Begum Abida Hussain, Syed Iftikhar Gilani, Umar Farooq Miankhel and Col Ghulam Sarwar Cheema, had an informal luncheon meeting at the residence of former Balochistan chief minister, Mir Taj Muhammad Jamali, on Thursday.

The group finalized its programme at the meeting and took certain decisions about its future. The group is confident to gain more political support from Punjab and Sindh "as it has already made inroads in the NWFP and Balochistan".

Earlier, it was perceived that the members of the IDG might join other political parties in their individual capacity but now it has been decided that the group should join any party together.

A source said that the group will start negotiations with both the PPP Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and try to seek better position for its members.

The sources claimed that the IDG leadership was confident of gaining a better bargaining position either with the PPP or the PML (Nawaz) as both the parties have in principle decided to contest the next polls without allying with each other.