KARACHI, Feb 20: The Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) is very confident former prime minister and Chairperson Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Benazir Bhutto will attend the multi-party conference (MPC), to be held on March 24 in London.

Central PML-N Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra told Dawn he was confident Ms Bhutto would attend the MPC. “I am 95 per cent sure that she will attend the meeting. I don’t agree that she is reluctant to participate.”

He said the PML-N was updating leaders of all political parties through phone calls about the outcome of the Monday meeting between PML-N and PPP and the date and venue of the MPC. The party has also decided to send formal invitations to all national and regional parties.

“We consulted 34 political parties on the MPC issue and they agreed to attend the meeting. Now, we will courier a formal invitation in a few days,” said Mr Jhagra, who is also Secretary-General of Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD).

He said there was no need to constitute an ARD delegation to extend invitations to parties that had already expressed their willingness to attend the MPC. “We have consulted the leaders of national and regional parties twice and as we have limited time to host the event, formal invitation cards will be delivered through courier to save time,” he explained.

Chairman ARD Makhdoom Amin Fahim told Dawn that the invitations of the MPC would be forwarded to all political parties through courier or by hand. “We are consulting leaders of political parties regarding their participation in the MPC and the formal invitations would be despatched in a couple of days,” he said.

Meanwhile, another senior PML-N leader said that the game of nerves between his party and the PPP was over with the announcement of the MPC’s venue and date. “Mian Sahab will chair the MPC and the PML-N will host the event. Now only the invitation cards are to be delivered from the ARD’s platform. Now, I believe Ms Bhutto will definitely attend the MPC,” he said asking not to be named.

He said the MPC is solely the initiative of Mian Nawaz Sharif, as he wants to unite all opposition parties including the religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on a single platform to adopt a unanimous strategy against the regime. However, he maintained that if Benazir Bhutto confirms her participation in the MPC then the conference would be jointly chair by the two former prime ministers.

He believed that all opposition parties would agree to launch a united countrywide movement against General Pervez Musharraf’s plan to get himself re-elected from the present assemblies and to ensure a free, fair and impartial general election under a government of national consensus.