LAHORE, June 27: The chances of cooperation between the ARD and the MMA to oust the present government are still dim, despite the visible signs to the contrary, because of the thinking of the JUI(F), the key player in the six-party religious alliance, sources in the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam said on Tuesday.

They said the JUI Shoora, which had met a day before the MMA’s Supreme Council meeting which decided to hold a series of public meetings in various parts of the country, was of the clear view that the situation was not conducive to a movement.

The JUI had supported the schedule announced by the MMA so as not be blamed for foot-dragging, the sources said. They said the sole purpose of the public meetings was to prepare the people for the elections.

“We have to be very careful in our conduct, because we are also in power in two provinces. We are the ones who can give the situation any turn, and Gen Musharraf would have to talk to us because of our position”, the JUI sources said.

They said the MMA could make it difficult for Gen Musharraf to get himself re-elected by the present assemblies by advising the dissolution of the NWFP Assembly and quitting the Balochistan Assembly.

The JUI also doesn’t trust the ARD as it thinks various leaders of the alliance are trying to strike a deal with Gen Musharraf.

(The opinion of MMA President Qazi Husain Ahmed on various issues is different from that of the JUI, notwithstanding their claims to the contrary).

The JUI sources said the party had serious reservations about the Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed by the PPP and the PML-N, and due to be ratified by the other parties in the ARD at a meeting in London on July 2.

“The CoD reopens many settled issues”, the sources said.

On the other hand, ARD Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim said on Tuesday that parties in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy would discuss concrete steps to bring an end to the army’s role in politics at their July 2 meeting in London.

Talking to Dawn, he said under the Constitution the army had no role in the governance and leaders participating in the London meeting would discuss the matter and come out with a strategy to confine the armed forces’ role to the one provided in the Constitution.

He said one way of achieving the target lay in free and fair elections.

About the public meetings announced by the MMA, Mr Fahim said the ARD wanted that two alliances should come up with a joint programme. But now that the religious alliance had already announced a series of meetings, “We pray for their success”.

The ARD chairman is scheduled to leave for London on Wednesday (today).

Some other leaders say that the ARD would not rely much on the MMA.

For the time being, they say, the MMA has links both with the government and the opposition.

In such a situation, they said, the ARD would work according to its own interests.