ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chairman Raja Zafarul Haq indicated on Thursday that there were differences on certain issues between former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and the Oct 19 meeting between could be their last chance to resolve the differences.

“The Oct 19 meeting between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif is very important. I think, it will be the last meeting between the two if differences persist even after the talks,” Mr Haq said while speaking at a function organised by the Islamabad chapter of the PML-N in connection with the ‘black day’ observed by the party to mark the anniversary of the Oct 12, 1999, military takeover.

Mr Haq did not say what the differences were, but expressed the hope that the meeting between the heads of the two major political parties of the country would be successful.

Earlier, without naming any party, Mr Haq had stated that some parties which had tried to make a deal with the regime were now disappointed. The PML-N chairman regretted that political forces had not played their due role during the past seven years. He said if the political parties continued to level allegations against each other, time would come when people would take the matter in their own hands and the ‘situation could go out of control’. He called for opposition’s unity for launching a decisive movement against the regime.

Mr Haq said the military-led government had ignored national interests and was implementing foreign agenda. He also criticised western countries for supporting dictators. He said the western world talked about democracy but always supported dictators to fulfil their own agenda.

The PML-N chairman said policies of the government were endangering the integrity of the state. He said the whole of Balochistan was burning. Some opposition leaders who visited Balochistan after the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti found intense hatred among the people for the army and Punjab.

Mr Haq stressed the need for formulating new principles of provincial autonomy. The party’s senior vice-president Syed Zafar Ali Shah also criticised the role of political parties during the past seven years.