ISLAMABAD, March 29: A meeting of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) here on Thursday ended without taking any decision owing to differences between two main components — the People's Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) — over the agenda, sources at the two parties told Dawn.
According to the PPP leaders, the meeting of the heads of alliance’s component parties had been convened to discuss the reorganisation of the ARD at the provincial and district levels, while the PML-N leaders claimed that they were told that the meeting had been called to discuss the prevailing political situation in the country, with particular reference to the ongoing judicial crisis.
The PPP sources told Dawn that the party had directed all its provincial presidents, information secretaries and other office-bearers to attend the ARD meeting to finalise a plan for reorganising the ARD at the provincial and district levels in the light of decisions taken at a meeting between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in London last week.
They said all top leaders of the PPP and office-bearers from three provinces were present in the meeting. They regretted that from the PML-N side only chairman Raja Zafarul Haq and vice-president Syed Zafar Ali Shah attended the meeting.
The sources said the PML-N leaders told ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim and other PPP leaders that they were not aware of the agenda of the meeting and had come there without any preparation. The sources said the PPP leaders expressed displeasure over this reply and said the PML-N was not taking practical steps to strengthen the ARD.
A PPP leader alleged that the PML-N had failed to bring its office-bearers to the ARD meeting because it was facing some internal organisational problems.
A senior PML-N leader said the Thursday's meeting had been convened by alliance chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim without any consultation with the PML-N. He said the PML-N was not aware of any decision taken in the Nawaz-Benazir meeting regarding reorganisation of the ARD.
Replying to a question, he said PML-N secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra was present in the London meeting but he had not communicated any such decision to them. He said the PML-N was an organised party and had office-bearers all over the country and it was wrong to say that the party was facing any organisational crisis. He said it was good to know that the PPP had realised the need for reorganising the ARD after seven years.
Meanwhile, briefing the media after the meeting, Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that they had decided to hold a protest demonstration from the ARD platform outside the Supreme Court on April 3 -- the day Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry would appear before the Supreme Judicial Council.
