In a meeting yesterday key leaders of the Awami League-led opposition line-up discussed the proposal sent by BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan in a letter on Friday to his AL counterpart Abdul Jalil.

The left-leaning components of the opposition camp as well as many AL leaders were fast opposed to talking reforms with any Jamaat man, a meeting source said.

The meeting however did not take any final decision yesterday. "We need to study the proposal in more details. We'll meet again tomorrow [Sunday] for further discussions," the source said.

But, a senior opposition leader preferring anonymity told The Daily Star they would nominate their representatives to the committee, with the condition that if there were any anti-liberation element on the government side they would shun the dialogue.

Sources also said the opposition half of the committee would most probably comprise three AL leaders of policymaking level and two from other alliance partners.

AL Presidium Member Tofail Ahmed chaired the meeting held at the AL central office in the capital. The participants included Rashed Khan Menon, Suranjit Sengupta, Motia Chowdhury, Hasanul Haque Inu, Obaidul Quader, Bimal Biswas, Dilip Barua, Syed Jafar Sazzad, Pankaj Bhattacharya and Zakir Hossain.

During the discussions in the meeting, Workers Party General Secretary Bimal Biswas suggested that the 9-member team which drafted the 14-party's reform agenda should represent the combine in the dialogue, said another meeting source.

On their staunch opposition to Jamaat's inclusion in the committee, Gono Forum General Secretary Saifuddin Ahmed Manik said, "We can't sit at a discussion table with

the government with Jamaat men present, because we're struggling to rout the anti-liberation elements and it's one of the major demands we're going to discuss."

Seeking anonymity, a senior AL leader expressed his support to Saifuddin's views.

The 14-party alliance components today will discuss the issue separately at their own party level before joining the combine meeting at 11:00am, which is likely to finalise the selection of combine's nominees to the reform committee.

In his Friday's reply to a letter sent nine days ago by 14-party coordinator Abdul Jalil, Mannan Bhuiyan proposed constituting the committee with five members from each side of the political divide. The BNP wants its coalition partners to participate in the proposed committee to discuss the opposition's reform proposals agreeing to allow non-legislator leftist opposition leaders to be in it.

After yesterday's meeting, Jalil told reporters they would not waste so much time like the government in responding to Bhuiyan's letter. "They took nine days, but we'll respond within a couple of days," he announced.

Jalil said the ruling alliance seems to be reluctant to implement the reforms, which would only trouble the country. "The government can make trouble, if it wants, in brining the reforms. But it'll not change anything, as it has now become a national demand," he claimed.

He reiterated that they would continue with the movement side by side the dialogue with the government.