LAHORE, Sept 24: Makhdoom Amin Fahim thinks the government will not come down even if all opposition legislators, including those belonging to the ARD, of which he is the chairman, the MMA and other parties tender their resignations, as the ruling coalition can still survive because of its numerical strength.

He says to pull down the unconstitutional and undemocratic setup, all opposition parties will also have to launch a strong public movement, beyond the control of the rulers.

Talking to Dawn on Sunday, he said he would not like the ARD lawmakers to quit the assemblies unless an anti-government atmosphere was created outside the parliament.

He said Ms Benazir Bhutto had directed him that struggle against the present rulers should be stepped up so that a democratic system could be restored at the earliest.

Mr Fahim, who is also president of the PPP-Parliamentarians, said he was calling a meeting of the party’s central executive committee in the first week of October to discuss the situation and work out a strategy for the future.

Thereafter, he said, he would approach various opposition groups to take them along.

He said resignations at this stage would not serve any useful purpose. “Our real target is to send the army back to the barracks, and this will not be possible without a strong movement.”

When he was reminded that the opposition was still groping for a strategy while the assemblies were going to enter their fifth and last year of their constitutional term, he said: “We had not been mandated by the electorate to quit the assemblies on the very first day.”

He reiterated that the ARD wanted to bring the army’s role in politics to an end, and the alliance would frame a suitable strategy for the purpose.

Mr Fahim alleged the government was deliberately circulating various rumours to drive a wedge between various opposition parties. But, he said, the ARD was alive to the situation and would try to take all parties along in its struggle for democracy.

He said efforts were being made to create misunderstandings between the parties in the joint opposition. However, he did not elaborate which steps he was referring to.

He also called for a comprehensive inquiry into the countrywide power breakdown on Sunday.

Meanwhile, ARD secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said he was likely to meet MMA president Qazi Husain Ahmad in Peshawar on Monday. He said if the meeting took place, the two leaders would discuss modalities for cooperation between the ARD and the MMA.

ARD deputy information secretary Munir Ahmad Khan said rumours heard on Sunday showed how unpopular Gen Musharraf and the Shaukat Aziz government were.

He claimed that the people in various cities had distributed sweets when they heard rumours that the parliament and the government had been sacked.

The ARD leader urged the US that instead of dealing with an “individual”, it should engage the people of Pakistan.