ISLAMABAD, April 29: Leaders of major opposition parties and alliances, including Pakistan Muslim League (N), Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf and PONM, are likely to meet in Islamabad in the first week of May to discuss progress on anti-government campaign, formation of a grand alliance, and a new date for the multy-party conference earlier postponed because of the judicial crisis.
Talking to Dawn on Sunday, ARD Secretary-General and PML (N) leader Zafar Iqbal Jhagra said that the proposed MPC had been postponed at the request of MMA leaders Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who now wanted it to be convened immediately.
He said the meeting could be held after the May 5 hearing of the CJP case in the Supreme Court.
Mr Jhagra admitted that PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s statements about a deal with Gen Musharraf had sown a lot of confusion in the opposition, and her attitude was a major hurdle in the formation of a grand alliance of opposition parties.
He said whenever political leaders started reaching some consensus on forming a grand alliance, Ms Bhutto would say: “Time is not ripe for such a move”In reply to a question about the name of the new alliance, Mr Jhagra said it could be called the MPC.
The ARD leader said that opposition parties were, at the moment, in complete disarray as every statement of Ms Bhutto about a deal with Gen Musharraf complicated the situation.
In reply to a question about presidential elections expected in September this year, Mr Jhagra said: “All parties in the ARD are in full agreement that any such move should be resisted with full force, and all options, including resignations from assemblies, would be used.
He claimed that leaders of all opposition parties now felt that there was a need to sit together under the banner of the PML-N to discuss the future course of action against the government, especially after lawyers’ countrywide protests against the Chief Justice’s removal.
However, pouring cold water on opposition parties’ plan to form a grand alliance, Mr Liaquat Baloch, a senior leader of the MMA, told Dawn that a recent meeting of the Supreme Council of the religious alliance had in principle decided not to push for a grand alliance in view of the fast approaching elections.
