March 09, 2007	Friday	Safar 19, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, March 8: Some office-bearers and leaders of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) are critical of the decision by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership to invite them to the multi-party conference (MPC) in London as observers with some of them threatening to boycott the moot, Dawn has learnt.

Sources said the issue was raised by a number of participants during a meeting of the heads of the ARD component parties in Islamabad on Thursday. The meeting was presided over by ARD Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

The sources said besides inviting representatives of some 34 political parties, the PML-N had invited 42 individuals, most of them noted columnists and journalists of the country, to attend the MPC being held at Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London on March 24 and 25.

The list of observers, however, surprisingly contains the names of Tehmina Daultana, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Munir Ahmed Khan and Malik Hakmin Khan, who all are the office-bearers of the ARD.

Tehmina Daultana is the vice-president, Syed Zafar Ali Shah the information secretary, Munir Ahmed Khan the deputy information secretary and Malik Hakmin Khan the coordinator. Besides this, Tehmina Daultana and Syed Zafar Ali Shah are also the office-bearers of the PML-N, which is hosting the MPC.

The sources said though these members did not directly raise the issue during the meeting, they managed to get it highlighted through the heads of some smaller parties in the ARD.

Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, who is the secretary-general of the ARD as well as the PML-N, explained the reasons for putting the names of these important office-bearers in the list of observers.

Later, talking to Dawn, Mr Jhagra confirmed that the issue was highlighted by some of the members during the ARD meeting.

Justifying the decision of the party leadership, Mr Jhagra said actually they were facing a space problem at the venue of the MPC in London. He said due to lack of space, the party was unable to accommodate all the participants on the front tables. He said these observers would be free to participate in the proceedings. However, they would be sitting in the second or third rows. Even Saranjam Zamindar, who was the senior vice- president of the PML-N, would sit in the second row, he added.

Mr Jhagra expressed the hope that the issue would be resolved amicably and that he would talk to the concerned members individually.