BB, Nawaz to discuss en masse resignation strategy

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Nawaz Sharif is expected to hold a crucial meeting in the next few days with Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
They will discuss the proposed en masse resignation by the opposition members from parliament as well as the provincial assemblies to protest the killing of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.
According to PML-N sources, Sharif thinks the mainstream opposition parties PPP, PML and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) should quit the assemblies and launch a countrywide agitation seeking the resignation of General Pervez Musharraf as president and army chief.
The sources said that a consensus had been reached on tendering resignations during a meeting of the leaders of Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and MMA which was held at the Islamabad residence of PML-N acting Parliamentary leader Nisar Ali Khan.
However, the PML sources said that during the same meeting, senior PPP vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim had expressed his inability to give a final decision about the resignations without obtaining Benazir's approval.
Soon after the Islamabad meeting, Makhdoom left the country to meet Benazir and to seek her guidance on the issue of the resignations. The PML sources said that since Benazir was hesitant to tender resignations for the time being, Sharif has decided to meet her and pursue the issue of resignations.
Benazir has apparently not taken a public position on the military operation in Balochistan. She had taken almost a week to condemn the killing of Bugti.
While MMA is set to hold its supreme council meeting in the current week to take a final decision on quitting the assemblies, the elected members of the Balochistan National Party have already submitted their resignations from Parliament and the provincial and district assemblies of the trouble stricken province.—SANA