March 28, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, March 27: A meeting of leaders of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) has been convened on Thursday to discuss the prevailing political situation with reference to the ongoing judicial crisis and to formulate a strategy to hold protest demonstrations.

Talking to Dawn on Tuesday, People’s Party Parliamentarians secretary-general Raja Pervez Ashraf said the meeting had been convened by ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim to discuss the future line of action regarding the prevailing judicial crisis.

Mr Ashraf said that the heads of ARD component parties would also discuss the plan for reorganising the alliance at provincial- and divisional-level to deal with the situation in an effective manner.

Replying to a question, he said that he personally believed that political parties should stay away from the visit of the suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court, where he would address the bar association on Wednesday.

Answering another question, Mr Ashraf said that the PPP and the PML-N would jointly hold a protest rally outside the Supreme Court building on April 3 when the chief justice would come to attend the SJC meeting for the third time.

PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had constituted a special high-level committee under the leadership of Makhdoom Amin Fahim on the issue of the ongoing judicial crisis.

The committee comprised Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, Jahangir Badar, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Sherry Rehman, Enver Baig and Farzana Raja.

According to party sources, the main purpose of the committee was to devise future plan to deal with the crisis.

However, the committee had not even held a single meeting to the day.