LAHORE, Oct 13: The Pakistan Muslim League (Q) will respond to PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim’s willingness for talks for the formation of next government on Oct 19, party president Mian Mohammad Azhar told Dawn on Sunday.
Meanwhile, a Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader said heads of parties in the coalition will be meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday to decide terms and conditions on the basis of which it may join hands with the PPP or the PML(Q).
The ARD President, Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, on the other hand, thinks that talks offer made by PPP leader Makhdoom Amin to the PML(Q) was speculative, as there was wide difference between the positions of the two parties on important national issues.
Commenting on the reported offer by PPP leader Makhdoom Amin that his party would soon be holding talks with the PML(Q) and the MMA to discuss the formation of the future government, Mian Azhar said: “There is no harm in his party’s holding talks with its main election rival PPP to explore the possibility of forming a coalition. However, terms and conditions which could provide a basis for such a cooperation, can be identified only by the party’s central working committee, which is meeting in Islamabad on Oct 19”.
“This is a very important issue. Our party has always been divided over the kind of relations we should have with the PPP. But, personally, I am opposed to the politics of confrontation. It has given nothing to the common man during the past 25 years,” he said.
Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said parties in the ARD and the MMA were committed to the restoration of the 1973 Constitution in the form in which it was held in abeyance at the time of military takeover three years back, undoing all constitutional amendments made during the said period and rejecting the result of the referendum.
In his opinion the indication of cooperation reportedly given by the PPP leader was speculative. The PML(Q), he said, had a totally different stand on these issues and thus there was no question of the two parties forming a coalition.
The ARD President said Makhdoom Amin had made him a telephone call on Sunday in response to which he had told him that he had gone through his statement. The Nawabzada said he talked to ARD secretary-general, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and PML(N) chairman, Raja Zafarul Haq, to discuss a date and venue for the next ARD meeting.
The Nawabzada praised the PML(N) for launching a protest campaign against the election results. “They are right in their assertion that the elections were massively rigged. I support their decision of launching a protest campaign.”
The ARD president welcomed MMA leader Qazi Husain Ahmed’s reiteration that the alliance of religious parties would work for the restoration of the 1973 Constitution.
Jamaat-i-Islami leader Syed Munawwar Hasan told Dawn that Makhdoom Amin Fahim had telephoned him on Sunday to hold a meeting with him at which cooperation talks could be held. But, he said, he told him that the matter would be discussed by the MMA leaders on Wednesday.
Syed Munawwar Hasan was of the view that the single largest party in any assembly should be asked to form government, no matter which party it is. Then, he said, it should be left to such party to seek cooperation from smaller parties and groups.
In Sindh, he said, the PPP was the biggest party and it should be given the right to set up its government.
Answering a question, he said, apparently both the PML(Q) and the PPP would be willing to accept MMA’s demands to get its cooperation. But, he said, both of them could not be expected to honour their commitments.
He said the MMA had no reservations about cooperation with the PPP provided it accepted its demands.
As for the PML(Q), he said, it was not in a position to go by the MMA’s stand on the constitutional amendments and the presidency of Gen Musharraf.