Mass contact drive after Eid: ARD

Published October 21, 2006

LAHORE, Oct 20: ARD chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim and secretary-general Zafar Iqbal Jhagra say the opposition coalition will launch a mass contact campaign after Eid.

Talking to reporters from London on Friday, the two leaders who also represent the PPP and the PML-N, respectively, said the Thursday meeting had been successful in all respects.

Mr Fahim said his party would not say a word against any other opposition party and instead try to take all political forces along.

He said the opposition legislators would resign in case Gen Musharraf tried to get himself re-elected from the present assemblies. Resignations, he said, would make the electoral college incomplete, making it impossible for the general to get elected for another term.

Mr Jhagra said the ARD would continue its struggle against dictatorship. The ARD, he said, would stay intact.

The ARD leader said the Sharif-Benazir meeting had put to rest all speculations that the PPP was going to strike a deal with the government.

The PML-N MPAs will be meeting in London on Nov 25 to discuss the situation in the country and decide the party’s future course of action.

Two days later, all MNAs will be meeting with Mr Nawaz Sharif. The party’s central working committee will be meeting in London on Dec 3.

Meanwhile, PPP MNA Fauzia Wahab said on Friday Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif at their Thursday meeting in London had reiterated their commitment to abide by the Charter of Democracy.

In a statement, she said the meeting of the two leaders had established that the opposition parties were united in their struggle against dictatorship.

Ms Fauzia said the opposition parties would not accept any election if exiled former prime ministers were not allowed to take part.

The PPP and the PML-N, she said, were the major opposition parties and their leaders real public representatives. In case they were kept out of the electoral process, the polls would be a farce, not acceptable to the people.

The PPP legislator said the struggle of the moderate forces against dictatorship would bear fruit very soon.