LAHORE, Oct 25: Realizing that exiled leaders Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto would not be allowed to return home in case the ARD continued to express its willingness to hold talks with the rulers, the alliance has decided to adopt an aggressive attitude and close the door on the prospects for any further talks, a central leader of the alliance said on Saturday.

The alliance secretary-general, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, told Dawn that the coalition would now use every possible method to mount pressure on the rulers to quit and allow the former prime ministers to return to their country. “The possibility of talks (with the government) is now over. We’ll bring the rulers to their knees by augmenting the pressure.”

He said so far the ARD had been soft in its attitude, hoping that the rulers would respond positively and let Ms Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif return. But the alliance had now lost all hope that such a policy would bring the desired results.

He said the alliance had concluded that the offers for talks with the rulers had in fact added to the problems of the exiled leadership and it was for this reason that the policy was being changed.

The ARD secretary-general said now people would be mobilized in all nooks and corners of the country and brought out on the streets. The greater the public pressure the sooner would the former prime ministers be back in their country, he emphasized.

While Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan had said on a number of occasions that the ARD was ready to give the present rulers a safe exit and would not be vindictive in its attitude in case the rulers quit, the new ARD leaders were very radical in their approach. They have threatened to try the generals who subverted the Constitution, and their collaborators in the judiciary.

Mr Jhagra said the Opposition alliance wanted to establish the rule of law so that all institutions worked within the bounds earmarked by the Constitution. He said once the institutions learned to work within their respective spheres, justice would reign supreme, and nobody would be victimized.

The ARD leader believed that the political atmosphere would soon change as a result of the mass contact drive of the alliance.

He said the ARD would make all possible efforts to take the MMA along so that the ruling coalition was isolated. He was confident that once the ARD and the MMA made concerted efforts, the present system would collapse like a house of cards.

The next ARD meeting will be held in Lahore on Nov 15.