Special ARD meeting to clarify Bhutto's interviews

Lahore, Apr 30 (UNI) A special meeting of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) will be called in the next few days to clear 'misunderstandings' created by Benazir Bhutto's recent interviews to some British newspapers, ARD's chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim said.

The ARD mainly comprises Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of former exiled Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif respectively.

''The PML-N has expressed serious reservations about Ms Bhutto's willingness to work with President General Pervez Musharraf under 'certain conditions', Dawn newspaper quoted a senior leader as saying in Lahore.

He said a heart-to-heart talk is now necessary to find out what the PPP leadership is really up to.

''Maybe we have to part ways. Maybe new alliances need to be forged. We can't keep quite after going through what the PPP chairperson has said in her interviews,'' he said.

PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, he said, had instructed party's secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, who is also the secretary-general of the ARD, to call a meeting of the alliance at the earliest.

ARD chairman Mr Fahim, however, said various parties were 'interpreting' the PPP chairperson's interviews 'in their own ways'.

If elections were held and the PPP emerged as the single largest party, it would have the right to form government. And if it was in a position to strike down the relevant law that barred a former prime minister from assuming the post a third time, it would remove the restriction and make Ms Bhutto the prime minister, he said.

And if at that time, Gen Musharraf was still in power after being elected by the current assemblies, the PPP would not like to 'stay out of power', Mr Fahim said. But, he made it clear that the PPP would not vote for Gen Musharraf.

When it was pointed out that like other opposition parties, the PPP had vowed to resign en bloc from the assemblies to thwart Gen Musharraf's bid to get re-elected, Mr Fahim said his party would follow the Constitution.

''If the people vote for the PPP, will it be fair for us to say that we will not form our government?'' he said against the backdrop of reports that the PPP has decided to strike a power-sharing deal with Musharraf.

He said it was quite possible that Gen Musharraf would not be on the political scene at the time of the next elections.

UNI