PESHAWAR,Oct 26: The Pakistan People’s Party on Sunday suspended the central executive committee’s membership of Abdul Akbar Khan, PPP’s parliamentary leader in the NWFP assembly, for violating the party discipline.

PPP’s secretary-general Jahangir Badar, in a show-cause notice issued here, accused Mr Khan of acting “wilfully against the party’s interests and hobnobbing with anti-party forces merely for personal gains.”

Mr Khan was also accused of not attending the party’s meetings besides blaming him for being involved in the alleged horse-trading during the Senate elections on Feb 24, 2003.

He was accused of taking a different stand on the Shariat Bill passed on June 2 by the provincial assembly and keeping the party in the dark about the issue.

He had also been accused of “cultivating relations with a splinter group of the party, (PPP- Sherpao group) and misleading other MPAs belonging to the PPP on certain issues.

The show-cause assigned Mr Khan 10 days to explain his position in this regard.

Despite repeated attempts by this correspondent, Mr Khan was not available to offer his comments on the issue.

A local leader of the PPP said that the party had decided to replace Mr Khan, with another MPA, who, he added, was committed to the political ideals of the party.

Yawar Naseer, PPP’s information secretary, attributed the delay in the action against Mr Khan to the party’s involvement in other issues.—Bureau