ISLAMABAD, Sept 9: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) briefed the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) on details of its meetings with the government on the Legal Framework Order (LFO) only after insistence of some alliance members, sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

They said the MMA leaders had issued several statements that they would take other opposition parties into confidence on the proposed constitutional package on the LFO. However, no ARD leader was contacted by the alliance for the purpose even after the Lahore meeting in which both the contesting teams had claimed to have achieved a break through of sorts.

On Tuesday, when the MMA and the ARD staged a combined walkout from the National Assembly, all the opposition members, instead of going straight to the cafeteria as usual to hold a press conference which had become a known practice, remained in the lobby for over an hour. And, it was during this time that the MMA briefed their opposition colleagues on the constitutional package when the deputy parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, told the MMA leadership that it was now time for the religious alliance to share with the ARD the outcome of Lahore meeting.

Following Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan demand, some other members of the ARD asked the MMA leadership to reveal the details of the package to enable them to know exactly what was being negotiated. JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman were also present during the briefing which was given by Liaqat Baloch and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed.

After this briefing, the opposition members again came to the National Assembly and raised slogans against the LFO and Gen Musharraf for sometime. Later, they staged another walked-out from the assembly and held a press conference at the cafeteria.