ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: The component parties of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and other opposition groups have started consultations to finalize the protest strategy for during the address of President Gen Pervez Musharraf to a joint session of parliament.

A meeting was held at the PPP Central Secretariat here on Thursday morning in which various options for staging the protest during President's address to joint session of parliament were discussed.

The meeting was attended by ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, PPP parliamentary leader in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, MNA Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Senator Safdar Abbasi, MNA Naheed Khan and ARD parliamentary secretary Izhar Amrohvi.

In the meeting it was decided that the ARD would finalize the strategy after consultations with other Opposition parties, particularly the nationalist parties of Balochistan and the NWFP. The sources said the participants of the meeting were unanimous on one point that the protest should be "strong and unprecedented."

The PPP leaders criticized the government for not disclosing the date of the joint session. They said it seemed that the government was afraid of the Opposition's strong protest.

Meanwhile, PPP President Amin Fahim held a meeting with Pakistan Muslim League-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq to discuss the protest plans for the joint session.

The sources said that both the leaders agreed that the Opposition parties would use their democratic right of protest during the address of Gen Musharraf as they consider the General to be an "illegitimate" President.

The protest strategy would also come up for discussion at a meeting of the newly-formed Democratic Alliance in the Senate on Friday morning, they said.