ISLAMABAD Sept 30: A 12-member steering committee of the combined opposition on Friday decided to hold no more talks with the government and to discontinue all kinds of contacts with it.

The committee decided to set up a five-member sub-committee comprising Raja Parvaiz Ashraf (PPP), Iqbal Zafar Jhagra (PML-N), Liaquat Baloch and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed (MMA) and Imran Khan (PTI) to finalize its recommendations about launching a movement against the government.

It was decided that another meeting of the committee along with heads of opposition parties including Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Raja Zafarul Haq, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Imran Khan, and Professor Hafiz Muhammad Saeed would be held at the residence of Raja Parvaiz Ashraf (PPP) on Oct 10 to discuss the report.

The committee discussed arrangements for a large-scale anti-government campaign to be launched in phases after Eidul Fitr.

The steering committee, it may be recalled, was set up on Sept 4 by the ‘national leaders conference’ convened by MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed and tasked to prepare and submit proposals for accelerating movement against General Pervez Musharraf.

The committee condemned the false impression of government-opposition contacts given to a meeting between Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the National Assembly during the recent session of lower house and decided that all such contacts/negotiations would be discontinued.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed told Dawn that the committee decided that demonstrations, rallies and seminars will be organized on provincial and district levels to mobilize the masses.

The opposition parliamentarians will also stage sit-ins outside parliament house and hold demonstrations in front of the Supreme Court and the Election Commission.

The committee expressed its deep concern over what it called the “helplessness” of the election commission “as the local council elections were massively manipulated”.

“The role of the judiciary, whose decisions went in favour of official contestants, was also a source of concern for the nation,” the committee said.