Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari met Jamiat Ulamae Islam (JUI) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman here on Thursday and both leaders agreed to hold further negotiations to cooperate in the incoming parliament.
"We want to take everybody along," Zardari told media after meeting Fazl at his JUI's political headquarters in Islamabad. "We have worked together in the past and we will in the future."
Fazlur Rehman, whose religious group had now lost maximum seats it held in outgoing assemblies, said he would support the mainstream anti-Musharraf parties for anything they do for the restoration of democracy and constitution.
It was not immediately known what was transpired in the first direct contact between the two since February 18 parliamentary elections but a source in JUI said both had talked cooperation to curtail the power of the president to dissolve assemblies.
But it could not be conformed from any other leader privy to the meeting. Earlier in the day Fazl told media a main decision making body of his party had constituted a seven-member committee to hold negotiation with elections winner to be part of future government.
There was, however, a sharp contradiction between what PPP said its liberal and moderate ideology and conditions JUI's central executive committee had spelled out for co-operating with other parties. The cooperation between PPP, an extreme left group and JUI, right hard-liners, looks to be a things would force both of the to compromise on the basics of their respective political philosophies. Looking at the recent trends in Pakistan's politics, it can not be entirely ruled out.