LAHORE, Nov 7: The PML-N and other opposition parties have offered conditional support to the PPP for launching a movement against the military government. Apparently disappointed by the condition attached to the offer, PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto decided to formally oust the PML-N from the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) by replacing the alliance’s president and secretary-general, both PML-N’s nominees, in its Wednesday’s meeting.

Ms Bhutto herself became chairperson of the alliance in place of PPP-P’s Makhdoom Amin Fahim who replaced PML-N’s Makhdoom Javed Hashmi as ARD president. Secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhaggra was replaced with Jamiat Ahle Hadith’s Qazi Abdul Qadeer Khamosh.

Ms Bhutto had, through former finance minister Ishaq Dar, sent a message to Mian Nawaz Sharif seeking his cooperation to wage a struggle for the revival of the Constitution and for free and fair elections under a neutral interim set-up.

Sources in the PML-N say that Mr Dar conveyed the message to Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai, and on Wednesday the PML-N said that it would be ready to side with the PPP provided the latter promised to cut off all its contacts with the government.“We are ready to assemble on one platform for launching an anti-government drive after discussing the issue with other friends in the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM),” Mr Zardari was told.

The MMA has also asked the PPP to clear its stance vis-à-vis its contacts with the regime. MMA deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch told Dawn from Islamabad that a PPP delegation, met some leaders of the religious alliance to discuss the possibility of working together for the cause of democracy, in a clear departure from the party’s policy of having nothing to do with the MMA.

Mr Baloch said they had made it clear to the PPP team that the latter would have to sever its link with Gen Musharraf if it wanted MMA’s support.

He quoted the PPP men as saying that reports about Ms Bhutto leaving her Tuesday’s press conference incomplete in order to meet someone from the president’s camp was fabricated and a white lie propagated by the government.

The MMA leader said he believed that Ms Bhutto was under pressure from a group within her party to shun her present policies which were affecting PPP’s popularity among the masses. He could not say how effective this group would be in persuading the leadership to change the party’s policy.

Mr Baloch, however, vowed not to let the army regime succeed in drawing the future political map by dividing the opposition.

Meanwhile, convener of Awami Jamhoori Tehrik, an alliance of left-wing parties, renowned lawyer Abid Hasan Minto said that his alliance was ready to extend support to the proposed long march and other protest plans of the PPP provided it gave up it contacts with the government. “The man Ms Bhutto is holding talks with is himself the problem. How can parleys with him prove to be useful in restoring the Constitution and democracy?”