ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy has postponed a meeting of the heads of its component parties scheduled for Thursday following hospitalization of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, who according to the hospital sources, had suffered a ‘severe heart attack.’

ARD’s deputy information secretary Munir Ahmed Khan told Dawn here on Wednesday that a date for the meeting would be announced in a couple of days.

The decision to postpone the meeting was jointly taken by People’s Party Parliamentarians President Makhdoom Amin Fahim and PML-N’s acting chief Makhdoom Javed Hashmi after a brief discussion at a private hospital where the two leaders had gone to inquire after the veteran politician.

The ARD chief was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday night after he complained of chest pain. The doctors provided him treatment in the emergency ward later shifted him to the CCU. Within three hours of his arrival from Lahore the 85-year-old Nawabzada suffered what his doctors said was a heart attack. Earlier after his arrival here he held meetings with various leaders of the PPP and the PML-N.

Dr Bangash, who is looking after the ARD chief in the hospital, told Dawn that Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan’s condition was stable but the hospital administration would keep him in the CCU for one more day. “His condition is stable, but he will not be able to get the needed rest due to rush of visitors, if shifted to a private room,” Dr Bangash said.

Doctors only allowed Amin Fahim, Javed Hashmi, PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf, Senator Raza Rabbani, Senator Safdar Abbassi and MNA Naheed Khan to meet Nawabzada Nasrullah jointly and that too only for five minutes.

During this brief meeting, Mr Fahim and Mr Hashmi informed the ARD chief about the postponement of the meeting. They also told Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan that no deal had been struck between the government and the MMA on the LFO issue.

Earlier, in the morning, MMA senators Prof Khurshid Ahmed and Prof Ghafoor Ahmed also visited the hospital and inquired about the health of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan.