LAHORE, Jan 31: Minister of State for IT and Telecommunications Ishaq Khan Khakwani claimed on Wednesday that leaders of various opposition parties were in contact with the ruling PML and they were likely to switch loyalties before the general elections.

Talking to reporters here, he said the ruling party would perform much better in the next elections compared to its performance in the 2002 polls. The party, he said, was united under the leadership of Gen Pervez Musharraf and the routine minor differences at various places were being resolved.

The party would be solid like a rock before the elections, he said.

Khakwani said the general elections would make clear the intention of the leaders on both sides of the political divide.

He said the onus of defining the moderate and progressive forces in public lay on the ruling party. In his opinion if all such forces joined hands in forming government making the political divide irrelevant, it would be the right course.

On the other hand, he said, it would also become clear whether the parties in the opposition supported or opposed the election of the president. This would be the time, the minister said, when it would become clear whether there was any understanding between the government and the PPP. If the PPP supported, it would mean that it was working under the overall regime of Gen Musharraf, Khakwani said.

Unity among the opposition ranks, the minister said, would mean that the impression about contacts and a deal between the PPP and the government was totally baseless.