ANP to attend APC, says Hashmi

Published July 23, 2003

ISLAMABAD, July 22: The Awami National Party has decided to attend the all-parties conference convened by the Pakistan Muslim League-N here on July 26, announced PML-N’s acting chief Makhdoom Javed Hashmi on Tuesday.

Mr Hashmi said that ANP president Asfandyar Wali had assured him that he would attend the APC convened by the PML-N ahead of the proposed government-opposition talks on the Legal Framework Order.

The PML-N acting chief said that all political parties and organizations would attend the conference in an effort to restore the 1973 constitution as well as the parliament’s sovereignty.

He said that president of the Supreme Court Bar Council Hamid Khan, and president of the Lahore High Court Bar Abdul Rahman Ansari had also expressed their willingness to attend the APC.

Mr Hashmi said that the APC would try to achieve a consensus on a uniform position on different issues during talks with the government.

Expressing the hope that the APC would achieve its objective, he said that it was also hoped that the opposition parties would remain united on the LFO issue.

Meanwhile, sources said the APC had been convened in an effort to keep the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal from deviating from the declaration of the previous APC held in Lahore on July 6 in which they had committed to continue their struggle for the restoration of the parliament’s sovereignty.

Javed Hashmi had already stated that the declaration of the Lahore APC could be re-adopted in the July 26 conference without any change.