October 06, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 23, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 5: Some leaders of the All Parties Democratic Movement have started an immediate damage control exercise to save the nascent coalition which faces a serious crisis after the JUI of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and some other parties of the alliance pursued differing policies in the NWFP Assembly at the time of the presidential election.

A senior leader of the alliance said on Friday the JUI-F wanted to have the provincial legislature dissolved so that Chief Minister Akram Durrani could continue as head of the interim setup.

Other parties whose legislators had tendered resignations wanted to thwart the presidential poll due to be held on Saturday, he said.

The leader, who did not like to be identified, said both sides worked for their respective interests. However, he said, now he would approach the JUI-F amir to clear misunderstandings.

The APDM leader said Maulana Fazlur Rehman wanted to sincerely go with the opposition parties, and it was for this reason that his party MNAs and MPAs of Balochistan Assembly had tendered resignations.

He said the APDM leaders had decided to dissolve the NWFP Assembly and quit other assemblies. Maulana Fazl was asked to dissolve the provincial legislature on Sept 29, but he promised to ask the chief minister to advise dissolution on Oct 2.

The leader said the PML-N, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Awami National Party decided to quit the NWFP Assembly, a step disapproved by the JUI-F.

The JUI-F has already decided not to extend blind support to the future APDM decisions. The party’s Shoora will now decide what kind of relation should it have with the APDM.

An APDM leader said what the JUI-F amir was saying was plausible. However, he said other parties were of the view that all legislators should tender resignations.

The policy of resignations, sources say, was supported by the PML-N leadership. At the same time, the PML-N leaders have been directed to keep Maulana Fazl on board.

“There are always problems in alliances, but we hope we’ll be able to overcome them”.