SUKKUR, Dec 8: People's Party Parliamentarians president Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said that talks are under way between the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy to evolve a joint strategy for the planned anti-government campaign.

Speaking at a press conference at the residence of PPP MNA Khursheed Shah here on Wednesday, he said if the government invited the PPP for talks, a decision in this respect would be taken by the ARD and not by any individual.

In reply to a question about recent statements of Asif Ali Zardari in recent days, Makhdoom Amin Fahim said Mr Zardari was an important leader of the party and he should be asked for clarification regarding his remarks.

He said if the government announced elections in near future, the PPP would welcome it and added that Asif Zardari's remarks in this regard were an indication. He, however, made it clear that Asif Zardari's remarks should not be taken as an end to the protest movement.

The PPP leader warned the government against creating hurdles in the ARD movement, the said the PPP workers would uproot all hurdles. Makhdoom Amin Fahim said the PPP and the ARD believed in strong and clean democracy and their protest was peaceful at the moment, but if the government tried to stop it could turn violent.

He said several religious parties were part of the MMA and he did not see any differences between Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman on any major issue. He said that if the PPP's peaceful movement and people's opinion were not given due consideration, the party would certainly give a call to the people to come out in streets, but the time was not ripe for such a call.

He said Asif Ali Zardari and Islamuddin Shaikh were friends and if Mr Shaikh in his private capacity invited Asif Zardari there was no harm. He said those who won the elections on the PPP ticket but later joined the government caused great damage to the party, and would not be asked to join the party.

He said only the party had the power to open or close its doors for anybody and all the decisions in this respect would be taken with the consent of part leader Benazir Bhutto.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that matters pertaining to the party would be decided by Benazir Bhutto, while political issues would be decided by the ARD and there is no confusion in this regard.

JUI LEADER: The people of Sindh have been facing a lot of problems because of the twin problem of lawlessness and unemployment. This was stated by JUI leaders Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, Maulana Abdul Haq and others while speaking at a public meeting here on Tuesday.

They said the federal government were using all resources to keep President Pervez Musharraf in uniform, while the Sindh government was busy in campaigning in favour of the uniform. Neither of the government was paying heed towards the problems being faced by the people, they said.

The JUI leaders claimed that at present upper Sindh areas, including, Shikarpur, Larkana, Jacobabad, Sukkur and Ghotki were in the grip of lawlessness and incidents of kidnapping, murder and robbery were on the rise.