LAHORE, Aug 10: Former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and opposition leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman on Thursday agreed to launch a “joint struggle for the restoration of 1973 Constitution and removal of the military dictator.”

In a one-to-one meeting spanning an hour at the office of PML-N in London, the two leaders agreed that the time had come for all political forces to get united against the military ruler and decided to invite all other parties outside the ARD and MMA fold to join movement on a one-point agenda: “Ridding politics of military interference and removing the dictator, Gen Pervez Musharraf, through street struggle.”

Talking to Dawn on telephone, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman said that he had a complete consensus with Mian Nawaz Sharif on the need to send the army back to barracks.

“We had a complete unanimity of view on the need for cooperation among political forces to restore sovereignty of the parliament, which has become a big question mark,” he said.

About the planned no-confidence move against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, he said that issue was discussed at length with Mian Nawaz Sharif and both agreed that “sometimes such steps are taken to remove the incumbent government, but at other times they are only meant to show resentment against the government and condemn it.”

Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman said: “We agreed that even if the no-confidence move failed, it would certainly achieve its wider political objectives i.e. proving political isolation of the government.”

He said that there was a “complete unanimity” of views that the present government had lost all moral authority to rule the country after the detailed judgment of the Supreme Court on the privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills and the procedures adopted for the privatisation drive. No government, caring for its political and moral respect, should remain in the government after such big scandals, he said.

Speaking to Dawn from London, Nadir Chaudhri, a spokesman for Mian Nawaz Sharif, said that both leaders discussed the prevailing political situation at length. There was a complete unanimity of views on almost all issue bedeviling the country, especially on the democratic front, he added.

After holding a lengthy meeting in the presence of their aides, both of the leaders also met one-to-one for about an hour, he said, adding that they agreed that all political forces must be invited to join struggle against the “undemocratic” military rulers.

Since the MMA had already agreed to cooperate on the no-confidence move against the government, both leaders agreed that all future political decisions should also be take “after mutual consultations”, he said.

Chaudhri said that Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman was very clear throughout the meeting about the need for political struggle against the military dictator and do so in tandem with other political forces, and that was the point that led to consensus on all other points discussed during the meeting.

The PML-N hoped that the meeting would give a massive impetuous to political struggle against the military dictatorship in the country, he said.