November 30, 2002	Saturday	Ramazan 24, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: The PPP central executive committee (CEC) on Friday suspended the CEC membership of three of the PPP dissidents, Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat, Rao Sikandar Iqbal and Naurez Shakoor, with immediate effect.

They [the dissidents] have further been given one more week to dissociate themselves from the Jamali government, the PPP’s acting secretary-general, Mian Raza Rabbani, said in a statement.

“Their basic membership of the PPP will also be cancelled and they will be expelled from the party if they fail to dissociate themselves [from the government] at the Centre,” Raza Rabbani stated.

He said that the memberships of the three federal ministers had been suspended for having failed to respond to the notices served on them last week, he said.

Notices, asking them to clarify their position to the party’s chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, had been served on the three dissidents, after they had announced their decision to pursue a course of action contrary to the party position on the formation of government.

They had, during their press conference, also declared that they still regarded Benazir Bhutto as their leader and reposed their confidence in her leadership.

The notice had asked them to contact the party chairperson and explain their position within a week.

REJOINDER: Meanwhile, a PPP spokesman dismissed the statement by Rao Sikandar Iqbal claiming to seek a patch-up between Gen Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto terming it to be “self-serving antics”.

The PPP spokesman dismissed the effort as being nothing more than a desperate effort by those, who had displayed “worst sort of opportunism,” to rehabilitate their public image through “such seemingly pious statements.”

“Ms Bhutto has neither asked any one, least of all turncoats, for effecting a so-called patch-up with the military ruler nor has the matter ever been raised with any one.

“It takes quite some gall to first abandon the Party and ditch its chairperson in the thick of the political battle and then claim that he did so to effect a patch-up.

“Unfortunately those who took leave of their political convictions, either due to favours or fear, are now also taking leave of their conscience and morality by making such false statements.

“A patch-up with the rulers is contingent upon restoration of the Constitution, supremacy of the Parliament, election to the office of the President in accordance with the Constitution and withdrawal of politically-motivated cases.

“Fight for these principles would have been much easier if the renegades had not ditched the party and its leadership at the most crucial moment in the battle.

“Some dissidents may have their own agendas of what they call ‘patch up’ to rehabilitate themselves before their voters and constituents, but that agenda has nothing to do with Mohatarma Bhutto or with the PPP,” he said.