LAHORE, April 30: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy on Sunday decided to steer the country out of the prevailing crisis before preparing itself for the general election. “We have set priorities. In the first phase, we have to take the country out of the crisis, then we’ll prepare for the election,” the alliance’s secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said while answering a question after a meeting of the ARD.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim presided over the meeting held at the residence of Munir Ahmad Khan, deputy information secretary. Jehangir Badr, Nafees Siddiqui, Malik Mushtaq Awan, Azizur Rehman Chan, Nawabzada Mansoor Khan, Tehmina Daultana, Naveed Malik, Syed Manzoor Ali Gilani, Khan Amanullah Khan, Qazi Abdul Qadeer Khamosh, Rana Nazrur Rehman, Nawaz Gondal, Joseph Francis, Safdar Husain Siddiqui, Sharif Khan, Mufti Ferozuddin Hazarvi, Sahibzada Fazle Karim and Pir Nau Behar Shah were among the participants.

Mr Jhagra said that in the election, the ARD would try to take all democratic forces along by either forming an electoral alliance or making adjustments on seats.

Asked if there was room for cooperation with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the ARD leader said: “We can join hands with anyone who supports our programme.”

When he was reminded that the MMA had cooperated with the ruling PML in the adoption of the 17th amendment, he said the religious alliance had disowned the amendment once Gen Musharraf had reneged on his word concerning doffing his uniform by the end of 2004.

“If any party repents its past conduct and wants to join the struggle for democracy, we’ll welcome it”.

He said ARD parties were starting a mass contact campaign by holding corner meetings. Gradually, he said, the campaign would be taken to the provincial level.

Mr Jhagra said all components of the alliance had supported decisions taken by Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto at their April 24 meeting in London and the Charter of Democracy being prepared by them.

Mr Jhagra and Mr Fahim had participated in the London meeting. The ARD secretary-general said the general election should be held under supervision of a government of national consensus and the exiled leaders should be allowed to take part in it. He said keeping the exiled leaders out of the electoral process would amount to pre-poll rigging.

The participants expressed concern over the situations in Balochistan and Waziristan and called for an end to military operations going on there.

They said it was deplorable that some Baloch leaders had been arrested or put on the exit control list. They said an ARD delegation would soon visit Balochistan and prepare a report on the situation in the province.

They also called for the release of all political prisoners, including Javed Hashmi and Syed Yousaf Reza Gilani. The ARD criticized the way the Pakistan Steel Mills was privatised.