950803

Govt-MQM talks

Altaf will

decide future

course: Dehlavi

KARACHI: Chief negotiator of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) Ajmal Dehlavi said on Thursday: "We think there is no hope for resumption of talks with the government aimed at restoring peace in Karachi."

"It seems the government is insisting on calling us as Altaf Group. They should recognise MQM and its mandate. If the government does not recognize us as the MQM, there will be no talks," he said in an interview in Karachi on Thursday.

Asked whether Zuhair Akram Nadeem, contacted him on arrival from Islamabad, Dehlavi replied in the negative.

"Neither Zuhair Akram Nadeem nor any other member of the government team had met him nor contacted over telephone," he added. Zuhair Akram was not available at his home in Karachi for his reaction.

It was announced in Islamabad on Wednesday after a meeting of the negotiating team of the government presided over by N.D. Khan, federal minister for law that Zuhair Akram Nadeem was flying to Karachi the same evening in order to meet Ajmal Dehlavi and persuade him to resume talks.

The MQM team had refrained from participating in the fifth round of talks in Islamabad on July 31 as the government was addressing them as Altaf Group.

Dehlavi said that a meeting of the MQM team was being convened in Karachi on Friday to review the situation caused as a result of the deadlock in the talks with the government.

After the meeting the MQM team will finalise a report and send it to the MQM Chief Altaf Hussain in London on Friday or Saturday so that he (Altaf) may decide the future course of action, he added.

Questioned about the government's demand to clarify the six points given to the MQM team at the last round of talks held in Karachi, he said that these were not addressed to MQM but to Altaf Group which we do not recognize.

About reply to the letter sent by the MQM to President Farooq Leghari on Wednesday, Dehlavi said so far they had received no reply from the President in this regard.-PPI