LAHORE, Aug 6: Some five dozen political parties, including those in the MMA and the PONAM, and lawyers’ organizations have been invited to the all-party conference being organized by the ARD in Islamabad on Aug 11, says a central office-bearer of the alliance.

Syed Zafar Ali Shah, the information secretary, told Dawn on Saturday that opposition leaders and deputy opposition leaders of the Senate, the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies have also been invited.

Major parties, he said, were being approached directly by ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim and PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq.

The APC will be held at Margalla Motel, Shahra-i-Kashmir.

Local elections and the government’s alleged plans to manipulate them would be high on the agenda.

The political situation and the line of action the opposition parties should jointly follow would also come under discussion, said Syed Zafar Ali Shah. A day before the APC, heads of the ARD components would meet at the residence of Syed Zafar Ali Shah to discuss the alliance’s strategy.