ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: The People’s Party Parliamentarians on Saturday put the opposition Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy in an awkward position when it refused to attend a multi-party conference being convened by the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) to develop a strategy for the forthcoming general elections.
Putting on a brave face over the PPP decision to convince former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to organise the MPC under the aegis of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, PML-N information secretary Ahsan Iqbal said the proposed London meeting would be held next month.
Mr Iqbal, who was otherwise at pains to stress that the ARD remained unimpaired, could not help recalling that Mr Sharif had spoken to all opposition leaders over the telephone before dispatching invites to them.
“And there are no prizes for guessing that the first person he spoke to was Benazir Bhutto because the PPP is a major component party of the ARD,” he said with ill-concealed disappointment.
Analysts said the PPP decision, which was announced by president Makhdoom Amin Fahim at a press conference following a joint meeting of the party’s central executive committee and federal council, would bring the ARD under severe strain.
Mr Fahim, who is chairman of the ARD, told waiting newsmen that the PPP would hold more talks with PML-N leaders to convince them to widen the scope of the MPC.
Sources privy to the proceedings of the PPP meeting on Saturday said there was a wide divergence of opinion among senior party leaders over PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s participation in the MPC.
They said some leaders believed that Ms Bhutto’s whole-hearted participation in the MPC would finally lay to rest all the speculation about the party’s secret talks with the establishment. Others, the sources said, were vexed by the expected presence of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in the MPC.
The naysayers pointed out that since Mr Sharif could not return home any time soon, the PML-N should not be allowed to hijack the 15-party opposition alliance, the sources said, adding that the PPP decision would be communicated to Mr Sharif through a letter in a day or two.
Political observers feel certain that the PPP wants to make preparations for the forthcoming elections untrammelled by the resolutions of the MPC which may decide to boycott the polls.
ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: The People’s Party Parliamentarians on Saturday put the opposition Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy in an awkward position when it refused to attend a multi-party conference being convened by the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) to develop a strategy for the forthcoming general elections.
