LAHORE, June 6: Leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the National Alliance discussed electoral cooperation, the current situation in the country and the volatile border situation at a meeting here on Thursday.

The meeting was held at the residence of MMA’s coordination committee chief Liaquat Baloch and attended by Pir Ijaz Hashmi, Riaz Durrani, Farid Piracha, NA general secretary Muhammad Ali Durrani, Begum Neelam Shah and others.

The participants agreed that as there were possibilities of cooperation and adjustments in the October polls between the two alliances, the matter would be put before summit meetings of the MMA and the NA for chalking out a strategy on the issue.

The NA team proposed that both the alliances should jointly convene an all-party conference to give a message to India and its supporters that the nation was united on the issue of the country’s defence.

Agreeing to the proposal, MMA leaders said the same would be forwarded to the summit meeting scheduled for next week.

They said political parties were with the armed forces and ready to offer any sacrifice for the protection of the country notwithstanding their differences with the government.

Condemning India for deploying troops on borders, they demanded that the Kashmir issue should be solved according to UN resolutions. They said the Kashmiris’ struggle was according to the UN charter, and it could not be termed a separatist movement.

Both the parties urged the government to eliminate, what they said, the line of referendum which had divided the nation and release all activists of religious and political parties imprisoned on political grounds, besides taking other confidence-building measures.

They were also unanimous on the assertion that elections were inevitable to steer the country out of the present crisis, and that these must be held on schedule.

They also stressed the need for purging the political system of corruption and the corrupt, giving a chance to the masses to elect honest and fair leaders in the polls.

Mr Baloch said the NA would be invited to the June 16 Kashmir conference being held at the Minar-i-Pakistan.

He said the MMA had not abandoned its stance that the government must fulfil its demands before inviting the alliance leaders for a consultative meeting with Gen Pervez Musharraf on the border issue.