LAHORE, May 10: The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) is unlikely to join Tuesday's PML-N programmes for welcoming Shahbaz Sharif. The MMA, at a meeting presided over by central deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch on Monday , deferred a formal decision until Tuesday morning for 're-consulting' Qazi Husain Ahmad and Maulana Fazlur Rahman.

Some participants in the meeting told Dawn that they had discussed the invitation sent by the PML-N and its vice-president Tehmina Daultana's recent statement in which she had questioned religious alliance's offer to properly greet Mr Shahbaz if he landed in Peshawar.

The meeting observed that the PML-N had, instead of properly inviting them, only faxed an invitation to the religious alliance's offices here, they said.meeting and the tone of most of the participants indicated that the alliance leadership was unlikely to join the greeting programme, they said.

Those who attended the meeting included central information secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi, Riaz Durrani, provincial MMA chief Hafiz Idrees and Mian Maqsood.

Representatives of the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith, the JUI-S and the Islami Tehrik did not attend the meeting.

Meanwhile, an MMA press release said that the supreme council of the alliance would take a decision at a meeting on May 16 on the launch of a month-long mass contact drive in the Punjab.

The MMA would also organize a grand conference in Lahore within a couple of weeks to condemn the US atrocities in Iraq.