MUZAFFARABAD, March 20: Four dissident AJK ministers and a parliamentary secretary on Saturday held sittings with head of Muslim Conference Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan and party's president Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan to decide about the future course of action in the wake of emerging signs of a patch-up.

Finance Minister Shah Ghulam Qadir, who is also the secretary-general of the ruling party, Revenue Minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, Industries Minister Chaudhry Masood Khalid, Transport Minister Hafiz Hamid Raza and parliamentary secretary Mir Ali Akbar had handed over their resignations to Sardar Qayyum late last month.

Dissidents had levelled several charges against Sardar Sikandar besides asking him to step down from his post to pave the way for the party's president to become the prime minister. They had also suggested holding of a secret ballot in the parliamentary party to ascertain the will of the lawmakers in this regard.

However, their demand could not win the approval of the powers-that-be and was also turned down by Sardar Sikandar.

On Wednesday, Sardar Sikandar had met with Sardar Qayyum at Ghaziabad in a bid to defuse the crisis following and their press talk gave impression that the patch up was the matter of days. However, the final decision was delayed till the return of Sardar Attique from UK.

One of the dissidents told this correspondent that Sardar Qayyum had asked them to find the solution of the crisis.

"Sardar Sahib asked us to find ways for rapprochement and we have sought some time from him," said Shah Ghulam Qadir.

He said they would hold more meetings with each other to decide how the crisis could be resolved.

Sardar Attique, who was contacted in Ghaziabad by this correspondent, said his first priority was to keep the party unified. He also expressed optimism that the crisis would be resolved within the next couple of days.