LAHORE, Sept 2: ARD President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan is making serious efforts to organize a meeting between former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif, living in two different countries.

The Nawabzada wants that the leaders of the two major opposition parties should meet in his presence so that plans could be drawn up for a movement against Gen Musharraf and his Legal Framework Order.

The ARD chief, in Britain these days, has already met the PPP chairperson and is scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia on Sept 7 to meet Mr Sharif.

Though the PPP and the PML-N are allies on the ARD’s platform, Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif have yet to hold a face-to-face meeting with each other in exile. As a result, there’s little contact between the two, despite the fact that they share political objectives and their parties are working for the same goals. Once they meet and hold talks with each other, their future interaction would become easier and more frequent, sources close to the Nawabzada argue.

Mr Sharif, banished to Saudi Arabia along with other family members in December 2000, can’t leave the kingdom as the Pakistan government is not renewing his expired passport.

Ms Bhutto, in self-exile since April 1999, is free to go to any country. Thus, a meeting between the two ex-premiers will be possible only if the PPP chairperson flies to the kingdom.

Ms Bhutto had visited the kingdom some time back as well but she could not meet Mr Sharif for various reasons.

The ARD chief wants that the two former prime ministers should return to Pakistan at the earliest to ratchet up pressure on Gen Musharraf to quit and take back the set of constitutional amendments (LFO), rejected by all opposition parties.

Public meetings and rallies being planned by the ARD are aimed at creating an atmosphere conducive for the return home of the two leaders, sources close to the octogenarian leader say.

The Nawabzada thinks that Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif should not be afraid of being arrested or deported. They should come back for the sake of their followers who want to see them in their midst.

The ARD, it may be pointed out, does not support the MMA’s view that Gen Musharraf should be elected president under certain conditions. And the ARD’s proposed movement will also be an attempt to scuttle chances of an agreement between the MMA and the government.