Click to play videoNew Delhi: Opposition parties in Pakistan are meeting on Sunday to finalise their election strategy.
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed have met in Lahore to discuss the issues to be taken up at Sunday's session.
But, Sharif was tight-lipped about the meeting.
“Some matters were discussed,” he said, when pressed.
Sources in Nawaz Sharif's party say top party leaders Shahbaz Sharif and Raja Zafarul Haq are in favour of taking part in the elections.
Crucially though, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto remain divided. He wants deposed Supreme Court judges to be reinstated. However, Bhutto says, that a new parliament should be able to decide that. Sharif’s party is also believed to be upset with Bhutto for being in Dubai at a time when the opposition is taking major decisions. Their joint charter of demands includes suspension of local governments till the general election, and re constitution of the election commission.
Nawaz Sharif has said that opposition parties have not completely ruled out a boycott of polls, however, he will support the polls only if all parties participate jointly. CNN-IBN sources have said that PPP is trying its best to convince Sharif, not to boycott elections.
Meanwhile, the Jamiat Ulemae Islam Fazlur Rehman Group also held a meeting in Peshawar to discuss an election strategy.
The party's provincial president, Gul Naseeb, says all component parties of the MMA will participate in the elections with the exception of Jamaat-i-Islami.
Even if the JIU-F contests the elections, Qazi Hussain Ahmed says it will not be the end of the religious alliance.
"The MMA will stay intact even if they (the JUI-F) take part in the elections and we do not. There was a conflict in the local body elections as well but the MMA will not fall apart,” the Jamaat-e-Islami’s amir said.
The APDM session follows the deliberations of an eight-member committee of the APDM and the ARD in Islamabad to chalk out a Charter of Demands.
It agreed on all but two points of the Charter: reinstatement of deposed judges and restoration of the Constitution.
However, experts believe the PML-N may decide against boycotting the elections, probably due to the mounting pressure from within the party.
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