LAHORE, Aug 22: ARD Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim says the government is trying to damage the unity of the major opposition alliance which criticizes its wrong policies.

Talking to Dawn on Sunday, he said the ARD must be kept intact as it was working for a great national cause.

He said in case the PPP damaged its unity, it would be held responsible and the same would be the case if the PML-N did anything which dented the cohesiveness of the alliance.

He made it clear that the decision on who should challenge Mr Shaukat Aziz in the election for the prime minister would be taken by the ARD. As for MMA's stance that it could support the ARD provided it nominated Makhdoom Javed Hashmi as its candidate, Mr Amin Fahim said that the religious alliance was saying the same thing which it had said on an earlier occasion. He said the ARD alone would select its prime ministerial candidate.