LAHORE, Sept 15: ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Mian Nawaz Sharif on Friday decided to step up the struggle for restoration of democracy and the constitution as it stood on Oct 12, 1999.

The decision was taken at a 90-minute meeting held at the PML-N office in London at the invitation of the former prime minister. Mian Shahbaz Sharif and Syed Ghous Ali Shah were also present.

A couple of days ago, Makhdoom Amin Fahim had met Ms Benazir Bhutto and exchanged views on the situation in Pakistan.

The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy chairman said the issue of opposition legislators’ resignations also came under discussion. “The joint opposition will take a decision on the subject,” he said while talking to Dawn.

Asked whether some meeting of the ‘joint opposition’ was being called to set a date for quitting assemblies, the ARD chief said: “We keep meeting on various occasions”.

He denied that the PPP leadership was in secret contacts with the government. He said talks in the select committee of the National Assembly on the women’s rights bill were held only to have the oppressive laws annulled. Such interaction, he added, could not be called talks with the government.

According to Mr Sharif’s spokesman Nadir Chaudhri, the ARD chairman assured the PML-N leader of the PPP’s unstinting support to the charter of democracy and for the restoration of ‘constitutional rule’.

He said the two sides had also discussed the establishment of a joint opposition front.

Mr Chaudhri said Makhdoom Amin Fahim had told Mr Sharif that he or Ms Bhutto had held no meeting with National Security Council secretary-general Tariq Aziz.