LAHORE, July 24: As political parties are holding their internal elections these days to be eligible to take part in the general elections, there is no such move on the part of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy. This means the ARD cannot be converted into an election alliance and its components will not be able to contest the polls on one symbol.

Under the Political Parties Order, parties constituting an alliance cannot contest the election from the same platform, on one symbol, unless the alliance holds its elections and informs the Election Commission.

ARD sources confirmed on Wednesday that the coalition was not being converted into an election alliance and its components would take part from their respective platforms.

However, they would make adjustments with each other according to their convenience.

They said the coalition might be kept intact even after the elections. The results of the general elections would make it imperative for parties in the ARD to stay together, they said.

One leader was of the opinion that to have the steps taken during the three-year rule, endorsed by parliament and get the Constitution amended, it was imperative for President Gen Pervez Musharraf to have the support of the two-thirds majority in the bicameral legislature. In the prevailing situation, he argued, it would not be possible for the general to get the desired results without a large-scale rigging. The manipulation of results would provide the ARD parties justification to stay together and work for the goals it had set for itself at the time of its inception in 2000, he added.

Sources said that even if the PPP and the PML(N) put up candidates against each other, both parties had softened their attitudes, and the bitterness witnessed till the military takeover was no longer there.

PML(N) leader Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said on Wednesday that his party had already agreed upon making electoral adjustments with the PPP in the NWFP, and efforts were being made for similar arrangement in Punjab and Sindh.

He said cooperation with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal was also being discussed.

ELECTIONS: Mr Jhagra said the party had decided to retain Mian Nawaz Sharif as the party president and Raja Zafarul Haq as chairman. The decision, he said, would be formalized at a meeting to be held on Aug 3.

“We are holding the elections only to fulfil a formality under the PPO. Otherwise, there will be no change of the leadership”.

The PPP, on the other hand, has also decided to keep Benazir Bhutto as chairperson.