ISLAMABAD, May 31: The postponement of the government’s all parties conference is attributed to both the indecision of the opposition leadership and the official side, and persistence of this state of affairs is likely to dim the chances for the APC, informed sources told Dawn on Friday.

While the opposition parties have been unable to take a joint action on the acceptance of the invitation despite a number of meetings, the government is reluctant to give an indication that it will accept any of the pre-conditions being put forth by the politicians.

If all went well and the government indicated its willingness to prepare congenial grounds for the APC the opposition leaders might give their consent by June 7 or 8, official as well as political sources told this scribe.

PML(N) Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooq said that the opposition, including the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, was unanimous that unless the government proved its sincerity through ‘confidence-building measures’ they would not consider it sincere in its attempt at consulting the opposition leadership.

So far as the acceptance of invitation is concerned, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan has full powers to take a decision on the basis of the ground realities, he said.

Asked whether the PPP and PML(N), the two major components of the ARD, would insist on their demand that their exiled leaders be contacted, Mr Farooq said there was no such condition attached to the process.

One irritant in the way of outright consent to the invitation is that the invitation has not been extended to all component parties of the two alliances.

Another irritant, sources say, is Gen Musharraf’s position in the post-referendum scenario as he intends to make the elected parliament and the prime minister subservient to him, besides occupying the offices of COAS as well as the chairman of the National Security Council.

The opposition, Mr Farooq said, wanted assurance that there would be no trespassing on democracy as enshrined in the 1973 Constitution.