LAHORE, March 1: The People’s Party may be willing to support an MMA candidate for the office of opposition leader in the Senate provided the religious parties’ alliance backs Makhdoom Amin Fahim for the same post in the National Assembly, PPP sources say.

The PPP is also ready to throw its weight behind the MMA’s candidate for the office of deputy opposition leader in the lower house of parliament if the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal supports the party’s nominee for the same office in the upper chamber.

But MMA President Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani says the PPP’s proposals are not acceptable to the alliance.

The PPP and the PML-N had contested elections from separate platforms and neither party could claim to be a greater force than the MMA, Maulana Noorani argued while talking to Dawn on Saturday.

He said JUI Amir Maulana Fazlur Rehman was the MMA’s candidate for opposition leader in the National Assembly and at no cost would the alliance like to withdraw him. However, the office of deputy opposition leader could be offered to the PPP, the MMA chief said.

Similarly, he said, the opposition leader in the Senate would also be from the MMA, and the PPP was free to propose its candidate for the position of deputy leader of the opposition.

The PML-N is not interested in any office in both the houses and has authorized ARD President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan to take a decision on their behalf.

The Nawabzada wants his alliance to have its own opposition leader. This means that the PPP and the PML-N should stay together and Makhdoom Amin Fahim should be given a chance to lead the opposition in the National Assembly.

He also wants close coordination between the ARD and the MMA to keep the PML-Q government under pressure.

Maulana Noorani, himself a senator-elect, said that a decision on the candidate for opposition leader in the Senate would be taken by the alliance’s parliamentary party in the next few days. So far, he said, the matter had not been discussed at any level.

JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman was due to meet Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan on Saturday night to discuss the matter.