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K J M Varma in Islamabad
The all-party meet scheduled for Tuesday to discuss Indo-Pak tensions has been put off over Pakistan government's refusal to concur with mainstream political parties' demand that they be allowed to raise the issue of President Pervez Musharraf's resignation and formation of a national government.
The all-party conference was fixed for June 18 by the president after deliberations between the 15-party Alliance for Restoration of Democracy and the government as the first such meeting called a few weeks ago was boycotted by leading political and religious parties.
The parties set forth the conditions that Musharraf should resign, appoint a full time chief of army and a national government should be formed.
A fresh row broke out after ARD demanded that its leader be allowed to present the demands to Musharraf directly during the conference or at a separate meeting.
ARD president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan told Information Minister Nisar Memon over the phone on Friday that if Musharraf was not willing to listen to the opposition's demands, the ARD cannot participate in the meeting.
He said the ARD was under the 'moral obligation' to convey its demands to Musharraf so that the nation knew that the alliance was serious about having them accepted.
Memon rejected Khan's demand and later said in a statement that the APC had been postponed.
Memon also informed Khan that a separate meeting the ARD sought with Musharraf was not possible.
He said the APC had only a single agenda -- situation on the Indo-Pak border and how the government should handle it.
"The June 18 meeting has been postponed in order to allow more time to the component parties of the ARD to reconsider their position to accept the President's meeting on the one-point agenda without any conditions," Memon said.
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