LAHORE, April 20: ARD President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, in consultation with Jamaat-i-Islami amir Qazi Husain Ahmed, decided here on Saturday to host an all-party conference on Friday (April 26) to evolve a joint course of action against the presidential referendum, scheduled for April 30.

Parties in the ARD, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Aml, the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) and the MQM (H) will participate.

Though the PPP has so far been hesitant to sit with religious parties, the Nawabzada told reporters in the presence of a Jamaat delegation that all parties in the ARD would take part in the APC.

Because of the APC a meeting of the heads of the ARD components scheduled for the same day has been cancelled.

Led by Qazi Husain Ahmed, the JI delegation which called on the ARD chief comprised Liaquat Baloch, Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, Farid Piracha and Mian Maqsood Ahmed.

Nawaz Gondal of the PDP was also present.

A day after the APC, the ARD is scheduled to hold a public meeting at the Minar-i-Pakistan lawns in accordance with an earlier decision that the alliance would hold an anti-referendum rally everywhere Gen Musharraf would go to seek votes for himself. On the day the ARD will be holding a public meeting at Lahore, the Jamaat will organize a public meeting at Peshawar.

“Since the cause is identical, there is nothing wrong with the ARD and the Jamaat holding separate meetings at Lahore and Peshawar,” the Nawabzada explained. The Jamaat-i-Islami has scheduled a march between Lahore and Rawalpindi for Sunday (today), although the Punjab government says it will not allow the JI to go ahead since there is a ban on political activity.

“When Gen Musharraf is going to elicit public opinion on April 30, we too have the right to let the people know our point of view on referendum. This is our constitutional right and we’ll exercise it at all costs,” a soft-spoken Qazi said, ignoring warning by the government.

“We are duty-bound to inform the nation about the factual position of the referendum,” the JI chief said.

He told a questioner that the Jamaat was a peace-loving party which had no intention whatsoever to engage itself in a conflict with the government. “We were baton-charged in the past, and we may be targeted again,” a chuckling Qazi said, asserting that the march would be held despite all impediments.

The Nawabzada said since Gen Musharraf had press-ganged the district Nazims despite assurances that local bodies’ representatives would not be used for political motives, the opposition parties also had the right to explain to the electorate why they should boycott the referendum.