06 March 2005	Sunday	24 Muharram 1426

ISLAMABAD, March 5: The top leaders of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) will be meeting here on Monday to discuss the modalities for cooperation between the two alliances in the anti-government campaign.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, ARD secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said the meeting would be held at the residence of PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq and it would be attended by ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and other leaders of the two alliances.

Earlier, the leaders of the two alliances had held two rounds of talks in Islamabad on February 16 and 23 in which they agreed in principle to launch a movement for the restoration of the 1973 Constitution to the position of October 12, 1999.

Mr Jhagra claimed that the February 23 meeting was very successful as the two alliances had come very close to reaching an understanding for launching a joint movement against the present regime. Moreover, he said, the two sides had discussed each and every issue thoroughly and agreed to remove concerns of each other.

He also claimed that the two sides had almost agreed not to raise controversial issues in the joint public meetings.

Mr Jhagra said that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif had talked to him on telephone from Jeddah and directed him to make efforts for an early agreement between the ARD and the MMA for launching the joint anti-government movement.

When asked whether the PML-N could go alone with the MMA if the PPP refused to do so, he said the PML-N chief wanted to have cooperation with the MMA, but not at the cost of the ARD.

Sources in the PPP told Dawn that the party had already decided in principle not to join hands with the religious parties' alliance. They said Benazir Bhutto had told the local PPP leadership in categorical terms that the party could not form any alliance with the MMA. However, they said, for the time being it was difficult for the party to categorically announce this decision as it did not want to be held responsible for breaking up of the opposition's apparent unity.