LONDON, July 9: All major opposition political parties will be meeting here in the next 48 hours for a mini-summit to further refine the decisions taken at the MPC and reinforce unity on the issue of waging a determined struggle to oust the military-led government of General Pervez Musharraf.
This was revealed by PML-N chief Mian Shahbaz Sharif while talking to Dawn here on Monday.
He said Maulana Fazlur Rahman and other leaders, including Imran Khan, Asfandyar Wali Khan and Mahmood Khan Acheckzai, had postponed their return to Pakistan until after the summit.
When asked if Benazir Bhutto would also attend the summit as she has returned to London from France, Mr Sharif said he did not know about her programme but the PPP would attend the meeting in full strength.
He admitted that soon after the conclusion of the MPC on Sunday evening, another meeting was held among all the major party including Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Safdar Abbasi of the PPP, where it was decided to hold a min-summit on July 11.
Meanwhile, the PPP on Monday said a meeting of the MPC should be called to determine a future strategy after the MMA resign from the government following the announcement of the election schedule by Election Commission for presidential polls from the present assemblies.
Reaffirming that the PPP opposed presidential re-election from the present assemblies and a president in uniform, a dissenting note to the MPC Declaration released by the party here on Monday said the opposition strategy should be determined in a separate meeting after the MMA resigned from government if Election Commission announced schedule of presidential election from the present assemblies.
The dissenting note said the PPP, while agreeing with the Declaration of the MPC, dissented on paragraph 3(b) relating to the strategy of the opposition should Gen Pervez Musharraf seek re-election from the present assemblies.
When Shehbaz was asked about the dissenting note, he expressed ignorance about it but said, both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif had agreed in meetings in the past to direct their parliamentarians to resign their seats in case Gen Musharraf tried to get elected from present assemblies.
“But we don’t grudge their dissent at the MPC. That is their democratic right.”
In another development, sources close to some parties which attended the MPC said that a new alliance of the opposition parties minus the PPP was being mooted among like-minded parties.
The new alliance, likely to be formed soon, is expected to include the PML-N, MMA, TI, ANP and PONM. The likely agenda of the new alliance will be to chalk out a more meaningful strategy for ousting President Musharraf than the one outlined in the MPC Declaration.
The new alliance is likely to give a deadline to Gen Musharraf to resign and also announce a timetable for holding rallies in major towns and cities of the country, starting from Quetta.
When Dawn approached PPP Information Secretary Sherry Rehman for her reaction to the general perception that was created by a majority of the participants at the MPC that her party was about to cut a deal with Gen Musharraf and also that the deal was aimed at sharing power with the president after the next elections, she refuted what she called wild allegations.
“We are neither cutting a deal with Musharraf nor are looking for a power-sharing arrangement with him after the next elections,” she said in categorical terms.
Pointing an accusing finger at some of her party’s critics, she said some of them had already cut deals with Gen Musharraf and others were sharing power at the moment with the military-led government.
When asked to name these parties, Ms Rehman said she would not like to name the one which has already done two deals, but the other one which was sharing power with Gen Musharraf was all there for every one to see.
“The MMA, of course. It is sharing power in one province with the ruling party. It has one whole province to itself, thanks to a helping hand from Gen Musharraf who rigged the elections in their favour. And it is also occupying the slot of the leader of the opposition when it rightfully belongs to the PPP. They won this slot by bargaining off democratic aspirations of the nation while signing the infamous 17th Amendment which also gave constitutional cover to a uniformed general to become an elected president,” she contended.
That was why, she said, the PPP was wary of the MMA and asked: “Why would the MMA help the ARD in its efforts to oust somebody who had given the religious alliance all this, marginalising big national political parties like the PPP and the PML-N which have mass followings, while at the same time inflating the political clout of marginal parties like the JUI and JI to exaggerated heights?”
In response to another question, she said that the MPC would have had better chances of success if a consensus had been obtained on the agenda from all participating parties before the actual conference.
“The conference could not achieve all that it should have because some of us felt vital decisions were being attempted to be taken without thinking through their short- and long-term implications. We have come a long way in the last 60 years. We better stop playing to the gallery and start strategising our moves while fighting against what has become a formidable opponent — the military dictatorship.”
She, however, praised Nawz Sharif for managing to save the MPC from a total disaster.
“He went out of his way to accommodate everyone’s point of view, even those with which he appeared to be disagreeing.”
