ISLAMABAD, March 7: The People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) have succeeded in finalising a draft of the joint declaration to be issued at the end of the multi-party conference (MPC) of opposition parties in London on March 24-25.

The draft was finalised by a committee of the two parties in a meeting held here on Wednesday. The PPP and the PML-N had decided to revive the four-member committee, which drafted the Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed by the two parties last year, to formulate the MPC declaration.

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani and Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi had represented the PPP and Senator Ishaq Dar and information secretary Ahsan Iqbal the PML-N in the committee that formulated the famous CoD, signed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in May and then by heads of all component parties of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) in July last year.

According to sources in the two parties, the decision to revive the committee was taken by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim in their meeting held in Dubai last month.

Senator Ishaq Dar, however, could not attend any meeting of the committee and Mr Iqbal alone represented his party in four meetings held during the last two weeks.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, Mr Iqbal said the two parties had agreed on basic points which would be included in the MPC declaration. He, however, said the draft declaration was still not a final document and the PML-N was open for suggestions from other opposition parties.