ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: The PML(Q) took its turn on Tuesday to try to woo the MMA amid a hectic search for a partner to form a ruling coalition in a divided National Assembly.

PML(Q) parliamentary leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain met MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman in an apparent move to revive a broken camaraderie that can hit Pakistan’s cooperation with the US-led coalition against terrorism.

At the meeting, the PML(Q) leader was accompanied by another senior party figure, Mir Zafarullah Jamali.

Later, PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim also held talks with Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whose Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam had been a PPP ally in the 1990s.

Tuesday’s contacts preceded a meeting of the MMA leaders due to be held on Wednesday to outline a future course of action by their alliance.

The election success of the religious parties, which had supported the then Taliban government, brought into focus the future of air bases Pakistan provided to the US-led forces for “search and rescue” operations in Afghanistan.

“American presence on our soil is in negation of our internal sovereignty, which should be realized now,” JUI leader told reporters after the meeting with the PML(Q) leaders.

The PML(Q), despite its support for President Musharraf’s key role in the US-led war against terrorism, seemed ready not to ignore MMA’s point of view.

“In whole of the NWFP, anti-American vote has been polled,” Chaudhry Shujaat said about MMA’s sweep in the province.

He told Dawn that the MMA’s emergence should be an eye-opener for the United States and the rest of the Western world, and said that Washington should review its policies.

PPP sources said that a meeting of the PPP-led ARD, which was due in Lahore on Wednesday, would now be held in Islamabad on Thursday to discuss its future plans.

The PML(Q) is trying to win over the MMA on the basis of past alliances that a united PML had forged with religious parties to oppose the PPP since 1977.

“We have worked with religious parties in the defunct Islami Jamhoori Ittehad in the 1988 and as such they could be our natural allies,” Chaudhry Shujaat said.