ISLAMABAD, July 24: The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) will chalk out its strategy for talks with the government on the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO) in a meeting of heads of all component parties to be held here on Friday.

Chief of the ARD Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan will preside over the meeting which will be attended by PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim, PML-N acting chief Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and leaders of other smaller groups in the conglomerate.

The ARD will also finalize the agenda for the forthcoming all-party conference (APC), convened by the PML-N in Islamabad on Saturday.

Since the ARD does not expect the forthcoming dialogue with the government to yield any positive results, the alliance leaders have decided to finalize the proposed countrywide agitation plan in Friday’s meeting, the sources said.

They said the ARD believed that the talks would fail as Gen Pervez Musharraf was not ready to quit the office of the army chief and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali had no powers to make commitment on any issue.

Besides, they said, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s recent statement that the government was ready to hold talks with the opposition on every issue except the president’s uniform had made it clear to the ARD that the talks would remain futile, and that they would be used instead to buy some more time for the “so-called” democratic setup.

They said Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan had already instructed the activists and workers to increase mass contacts so that an effective protest movement could be launched against the government.

They said the Nawabzada had recently held talks with PPP Punjab president Qasim Zia and PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafiq and asked them to prepare the provincial chapters of their respective parties for launching the agitation drive.

The sources said the pressure on the ARD was increasing to launch a protest movement and the alliance believed that it would be the final round of talks.

When contacted, ARD’s deputy information secretary Munir Ahmed Khan confirmed that the ARD would finalize its plan for the August 14 rally in Rawalpindi in its meeting on Friday.

He said the ARD was also using diplomatic channels to put pressure on the regime for the restoration of genuine democracy in the country.

He said Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan had recently held talks with the British high commissioner and he would be meeting the Spanish ambassador on Friday morning to apprise him of the present political situation in the country.

When asked whether the ARD had any hope for the talks’ success, Mr Munir said the country’s history showed that the dictators had never quit voluntarily. He once again reiterated the ARD’s stance that it was not ready to accept Gen Pervez Musharraf as president in uniform.

“If the government wants to make the talks a success, it will have to bring the LFO to parliament for approval,” he said emphatically.