LAHORE Important US figures have approached the top Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leadership in London with the request to bail out the PPP-led coalition on the issue of the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST). Although the Senate has passed the RGST Bill but it cannot take effect unless also approved by the National Assembly where the governments allies and the opponents plan to resist the move tooth and nail. A spokesman for the MQM told TheNation on Saturday that the MQM leadership told the US authorities that the party would not change its stance on the RGST and stood firmly by the policy already decided by the Rabita (Coordination) Committee. The spokesman said President Zardari had also sent a message to the MQM chief, but there was no flexibility in Altaf Hussains stand. The RGST has become a matter of prestige for the ruling PPP as well as the opposition parties. The ruling party is determined to have it passed from the National Assembly to be able to meet a precondition set by the IMF for a $1.07 billion tranche to Pakistan. The parties are devising their respective strategies for the National Assembly session. PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif discussed the matter with his party leaders, including Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Senator Pervaiz Rashid, during their flight to and from Quetta Saturday. It was decided that the PML-N would ensure the presence of all its MNAs in the Lower House when the RGST Bill was placed for voting. Senator Pervaiz said while talking to TheNation that the PML-Qs strategy on the RGST in the Senate was not unexpected for the PML-N, adding that it was dictated by the vested interests of leadership who could not afford to go against the government because of the alleged financial irregularities committed by them. He said everybody knew that the PML-Q leaders were critical of the Sharifs, not President Zardari, because they knew that in other case they would have to face consequences of their involvement in the Bank of Punjab scam. He said the PML-Q did in the Senate what the PPP leadership wanted it to do. Rashid believed that the situation in the National Assembly would be different because the speaker would have to put the RGST to vote. During a conversation with TheNation, PML-Q parliamentary party leader in the National Assembly, Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, said the RGST was like an economic drone attack on the people of Pakistan and his party would strongly oppose it in National Assembly. He said the PML-Q was in contact with other opponents of the RGST and they were likely to adopt an identical stand in the National Assembly. Its our duty to resist anti-people legislation. He said the PML-N, the MQM, the Fata MNAs, the PPP (Sherpao) and many others were opposed to the new taxation, which the already tax-laden people were unable to sustain. The PML-Q leader said he would give his views on how more resources could be raised without imposing the RGST at a meeting of the NAs Standing Committee on Finance on December 2. In a related development, MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar called Jamaat-i-Islami Secretary General Liaquat Baloch to inform the latter about the MQMs viewpoint on the issue. He told the Jamaat leader that his party would not change its stance on the new taxation bill. Baloch appreciated the MQM, but urged its leadership to adhere to its standpoint. He said the JI was going to stage a sit-in in Islamabad on December 5.