On the advice of President Pervez Musharraf, the suspended president of the Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-QA), Mian Mohammed Azhar, has decided to step down without a fight and allow Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to take over the party.

This greatly reduces the chances of an immediate showdown within the party, although dissent is likely to continue within its ranks. The decision by Azhar came after he met Musharraf on Friday.

The meeting lasted 40 minutes and is said to have settled the dispute between the PML-QA leaders over the party presidency.

Sources said that Musharraf had invited Azhar for a meeting after the PML-QA suspended the latter as party president following his effort to create a separate group within the PML-QA, consisting mostly of the October 10 losers.

Following the meeting, Azhar himself was reluctant to comment, but sources close to him said that after meeting Mushrraf, he had decided to step aside.

Apparently Azhar's hopes of persuading Musharraf that the no-confidence move against him within the party was unconstitutional had little impact, and though sympathetic to him, Musharraf advised him to bow out gracefully.

Sources said Azhar apprised the president of the situation in the party and said Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Khan Jamali and Shujaat Hussain were running the party in violation of its constitution and trying to corner other senior leaders.

Sources further said Azhar also urged the president to relax the restriction on October 10 losers and allow them to contest the Senate elections, but the president did not commit to withdraw the government decision.

Sources said it was expected that after this meeting, Azhar might be asked to accept the position of the PML-QA chairman and relinquish the office of party president for Shujaat Hussain, whom the PML-QA general council would elect for the top office on December 20.

The conflict over the PML-QA presidentship had widened the gulf between Azhar and Shujaat as the former was not ready to step down and had rallied around him the October 10 losers and anti-Chaudhry elements in the party.

Around 500 members of the PML-QA requisitioned a meeting of the party's general council to re-elect the party president and secretary general.

The acting secretary general, Salim Saifullah, called the general council meeting on December 20.

These PML-QA members accused Azhar of failing to run the party effectively and held him responsible for the loss of a large number of seats in October 10 elections because of his wrong decisions of awarding party tickets for the National and Provincial Assemblies.

Azhar and Shujaat also locked horns over the appointment of the party's information secretary and secretary general.

Azhar also criticised Shujaat's decision to agree to the allocation of top ministries to PPPP 'turncoats' in the federal cabinet while ignoring the PML-QA MNAs.