28 January 2005	Friday	17 Zilhaj 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The People's Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the two major component parties of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, have decided to boycott the roundtable conference on Balochistan convened by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, in Quetta on Friday.

Talking to Dawn separately here on Thursday, PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar and PML-N information secretary Siddiqul Farooque said the ARD believed that the MQM was a part of the government and in a way also responsible for the Balochistan situation.

He said the MQM being part and parcel of the regime should use its influence and power within the government to redress the genuine grievances of Balochistan which responsibility it seemed to have abdicated.

Meanwhile, talking to Dawn, PML-N chairman and former federal minister Raja Zafarul Haq said ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim had talked to him by telephone and both of them agreed to boycott the MQM's conference on Balochistan.

The PML-N chairman said it would be wrong to say that those parties which were not participating in the roundtable conference had no interest in resolving the Balochistan issue.

MMA'S REFUSAL: The Balochistan chapter of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has announced its refusal to participate in the roundtable conference convened by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, saying the MQM was part of the coalition government but wanted to gain sympathies of opposition parties, our correspondent adds from Quetta.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, Maulana Abdul Haq Hashmi, MMA's provincial leader, said that component parties of the alliance after consultations decided not to attend the conference schedule for Friday.