March, 29 2005	Tuesday	18 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, March 28: The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) on Monday failed to decide on whether to support strike calls given by the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (Ponam) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) for March 31 and April 2 respectively, ARD sources said. But the People’s Party Parliamentarians, the ARD’s leading component, separately announced its support for the Ponam strike call for March 31.

In the ARD meeting on Monday, the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) pressed for supporting both Ponam and the MMA strike calls, ARD sources told Dawn. But they said the PPP showed its reluctance to extend support to the MMA and called for supporting only the Ponam call.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, ARD secretary general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said the alliance had “agreed in principle” to support both the strike calls but a final decision about its participation in the strikes would be taken soon by a committee yet to be nominated.

Only PML-N MNA Tehmina Daultana and some leaders of smaller ARD parties accompanied Mr Jhgara at the news briefing and no PPP leader was present.

But at about the same time, PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar announced that the PPP had “decided to support the shutter down and wheel-jam strike call given by Ponam on March 31”.

Mr Jhagra failed to give satisfactory replies to reporters’ questions about the reasons for the ARD’s failure to make a concrete collective decision on the issue of cooperation with the Ponam and the MMA when the March 31 strike was only two days away. “We want to cooperate with them with a solid programme and, therefore, we have decided to form a committee to discuss modalities for it”, Mr Jhagra said. He expressed the hope that the committee would be formed soon and it would take a decision before the strike.

The ARD secretary general denied there were differences between the PPP and the PML-N on any issue and said the PPP leaders had assured the ARD leaders that they were not striking any “deal” with the government.

He said ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who is also the PPP chairman, had informed the participants of the meeting that The ARD leaders would be taken into confidence if anything materialized in the ongoing government-PPP talks and that a decision would only be taken from the ARD platform.

Mr Jhagra announced that the ARD had decided to restart its mass mobilization campaign against the government in the last week of April but he did not give an exact date or the venue of any planned public rally.