December 11, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 6, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: The Pakistan Muslim League (Q) has convened an emergency meeting of its general council on Dec 20, following a no-confidence resolution moved against the party president, Mian Muhammad Azhar.

The party general council meeting will be held here at Muslim League Central Secretariat at 10am on Dec 20, acting Secretary General, Saleem Saifullah Khan, told a press conference on Tuesday night.

He said that under the article 36 of the party’s constitution, he was supposed to convene the general council within 10 days of receiving a no-confidence resolution and a requisition signed by at least 170 members of the general council.

The requisition and no-confidence resolution received on Tuesday was signed by around 450 members out of the total 950 members of the general council, he said.

Saleem Saifullah Khan, whose nomination as the party secretary general in place of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, caused sharp intra-party differences, said all the legal and constitutional powers of the party president had been suspended after the initiation of a no-trust resolution against him.

The party’s acting secretary general said the election to the post of party president as well as three other party offices would be held the same day.

Earlier, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, the younger bother of PML-Q’s parliamentary party leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, read out the no-confidence resolution at the press conference.

The resolution, signed by over 450 members, levelled serious allegation against Mian Azhar, including jeopardising the party interests.

It said that Azhar failed to run the party’s election campaign in an effective manner beyond Punjab, with the result the party candidates’ performance remained poor in the other three provinces.

Referring to his recent statements, the resolution said these were damaging the party’s interests and aimed at creating divisions in the party ranks.