LAHORE, April 14: The PPP and the PML-N, two major opposition parties, at a meeting in London on Friday decided to make concerted efforts to restore genuine parliamentary system in which the army would have no role in national politics.
Broad outlines of the future political agenda also came under discussion when a PPP delegation, led by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, called on former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. This was a follow-up meeting of the one PML-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif held with PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto in Dubai a few weeks ago.
Now a meeting of the two former premiers will be held to finalise matters.
Before the meeting of the two ARD components, the PPP and the PML-N leaders also held a joint session with MMA’s Hafiz Hussain Ahmed.
Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Raza Rabbani, Jehangir Badr, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Senator Enver Baig, Nafees Siddiqui of the PPP and Mian Nawaz Sharif, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Syed Ghous Ali Shah represented their respective parties.
Mr Fahim said at a news conference after the meeting that the alliance’s struggle was in progress and it would be stepped up.
He said that Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif had already decided that they would return to Pakistan. However, a timeframe for the return would be decided later.
He told a questioner that all reservations between the PPP and the PML-N had been removed.
PML-N’s secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said the ARD would not take part in the elections held under the supervision of Gen Musharraf. “We’ll not let anybody hold the elections if Gen Musharraf does not quit by then,” said Mr Jhagra, who is also the secretary-general of the ARD.
According to Mr Jhagra, a meeting of the heads of the ARD parties would be called in London after a meeting between the two former prime ministers.
PPP’s Nafees Siddiqui said that both sides had decided not to hold any dialogue with the government.
Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said after the ‘tripartite talks’ that he had proposed that Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto should return to Pakistan as soon as possible so that an effective movement against the government could be launched.
He said the understanding between the ARD and the MMA, reached at the residence of PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, should be implemented in letter and spirit.
According to the MMA leader, Mr Sharif planned to hold an all-party conference in London to gather all opposition parties on a single platform.
Mr Sharif, on the other hand, held extensive consultations with his party leaders who had gone to the British capital to participate in a meeting of the party’s central working committee.
A ‘Charter of Democracy’, prepared by the PPP and the PML-N, came under discussion at the talks the Makhdoom Fahim-led delegation held with the exiled former prime minister. The charter commits the two parties to annul the 17th amendment and restore the Constitution to its pre-October 1999 shape.
The charter proposes that the power to appoint the services chiefs and governors should rest with the prime minister, not the president. Since the PPP and the PML-N think that the National Security Council encroaches upon the authority of parliament, both are in favour of disbanding it at the earliest.
The two parties also want the ban on twice-elected prime ministers to become chief executive again, lifted. The charter also proposes that intelligence agencies should be made accountable and their political wings disbanded.
It also commits the two parties to include the judiciary and the members of the army in the accountability process. The PPP and the PML-N are of the view that the defence budge should be debated in parliament. The original draft of the charter prepared by the two sides was quite comprehensive.
