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Pakistan parties mull strategy

Nirupama Subramanian

— PHOTO: AP

Bullet-riddled: The front view of the Red Mosque, which is under siege by security forces, in Islamabad on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD: The long drawn-out siege at the capital’s Lal Masjid has completely overshadowed a two-day “All Parties’ Conference” (APC) by Pakistan’s Opposition parties that began in London on Saturday.

Billed as an event where the Opposition parties would hammer out a joint strategy to oust President Pervez Musharraf, the APC may end up deepening the rift between the Pakistan People’s Party and all other Opposition parties.

Organised by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif, the APC brought together several leading lights of the Opposition, but PPP leader Benazir Bhutto stayed away, sending a representative, Makhdum Amin Fahim, instead.

The PPP says Ms. Bhutto stayed away because she did not want to share a platform with the religious rightwing parties that comprise the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition.

But others suspect she is keeping her options open for an understanding with Gen. Musharraf.

A four-month agitation by the legal community in support of the suspended Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhary, has weakened Gen. Musharraf a great deal, and the Opposition fears that he could bounce back through an understanding with the PPP.

At the APC, various Opposition leaders urged Ms. Bhutto not to enter into any understanding with Gen. Musharraf.

Mr. Sharif led the call for mass resignation by the Opposition parties from their seats in Parliament and the provincial legislatures in case Gen. Musharraf tries to get re-elected by the present Assemblies.

The PPP said it would not join in the resignation but would not help Gen. Musharraf in his re-election.

The Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed; the Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami leader, Maulan Fazlur Rehman; the leader of Awami National Party, Asfandyar Wali Khan; Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan and many others at the conference spoke in support of Mr. Sharif’s proposal.

The meeting continued on Sunday.

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