ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy is facing problems in developing a consensus on mode of protest against the Legal Framework Order due to the differences within the opposition alliance on the issue, sources told Dawn on Monday.

The sources said in an effort to develop a consensus and to chalk out the future strategy regarding protest against the LFO inside the parliament the alliance had formed two different committees.

According to the sources, the decision to constitute committees has been taken at the parliamentary party meeting of the ARD held at the Committee Room of the Parliament House before the start of the National Assembly session on Monday evening.

The sources said it was decided that the two major component parties of the alliance, the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the PML-N, would separately form committees which would present their reports in the parliamentary party meeting on Friday. They said if the two committees presented different reports then voting would be held to finalize the decision.

The need for the formation of committees was felt when the opposition members presented different views on mode of protest during the parliamentary party meeting on Monday. According to the sources, there is a group in the ARD which wants complete boycott of the assembly proceedings and a strong protest while another group of the MNAs is desirous of taking part in the proceedings to give government a tough time. The sources said there was also a group which wanted a partial participation in the proceedings.

“As there were different opinions and it was difficult for the leadership to finalize the protest strategy, we decided to constitute committees to seek proposals from each and every member to develop a consensus”, said ARD president and acting PML-N chief Makhdoom Javed Hashmi.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Hashmi claimed that there was a majority of those MNAs who wanted complete boycott of the proceedings. However, he said, the ARD wanted to intensify its protest against the LFO and that could only be possible when there would be unity and consensus among the members.

Replying to a question that why the PPP and the PML-N have constituted separate committees, Mr Hashmi said both the committees would consult members of their respective party and then final decision would be taken by the ARD top leadership. He categorically denied that there was a rift within the alliance, stating that all component parties were united on the LFO that it was illegal and unconstitutional. He said the ARD was also in touch with the MMA and hopefully the two opposition alliances would be able to jointly launch protest drive against the government. Those in the PML-N committee included Javed Hashmi, Khwaja Asif, Chaudhry Nisar Ali, Saad Rafiq, Rana Asif, Sahibzada Fazal Karim, Raja Nadir Pervez and Abid Sher Ali.

PPP secretary general Raja Pervez Ashraf told Dawn that the PPP had already constituted the committee for this purpose. The committee comprised Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Khursheed Shah, Nayyar Bokhari, Aftab Shah Jillani, Beelum Hasnain, Shagufta Jamani and Ramesh Lal. He said the committees would evaluate the effect of the protest carried out by the opposition and suggest new ways to make the protest more effective.