ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) is still undecided about the mode of protest it would like to use against the Legal Framework Order and the president’s uniform during the next sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate, a source told Dawn here on Saturday.

Expressing surprise over reports quoting some leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) that the combined opposition had decided to participate in the proceedings of the parliament, a senior ARD leader said as far as the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N were concerned, no such decision had been taken.

“The ARD will take the final decision in this regard, as has been its practice all through the last one year, in a meeting of its parliamentary group to be held just before the start of the next session of parliament,” he said.

He said the combined opposition had not even decided the dates on which it would requisition the post-Eid National Assembly session, what to talk about taking part in the proceedings. However, he added, signatures of the required number of the members had been obtained for requisitioning the session and the PPP had been asked to submit the notice at a suitable time. The requisition notice contained signatures of the MMA members as well, he further.

Commenting on one-month deadline given by the MMA to the government for resolving the LFO crisis, he said the ARD had already lodged its protest with the MMA in this regard. He did not rule out the possibility of launching the anti-government campaign without the support of the MMA.

“The ARD alone has the ability and power to launch the anti-government campaign with full force and it will not wait for long for the other groups to make up their minds about joining it,” he added.

Meanwhile, another source in the ARD conceded that there were differences within the alliance over the issue of cooperation with the MMA. He said some members were against joining hands with the religious alliance due to its “sell-out like” flexibility towards the military regime.

These members believed that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal could “sabotage” the planned agitation movement against the government by ditching the opposition parties at the last minute, he added.

Ms Benazir Bhutto, he claimed, had authorized the local leadership present in the country to take a final decision regarding the cooperation with the MMA.