13 January 2004	Tuesday	20 Ziqa'ad 1424

LAHORE, Jan 12: Mr Fakhar Zaman, a member of the PPP's central executive committee, has sent an urgent message to Ms Benazir Bhutto informing her that some 'turncoats and renegades' are planning to hijack the party by setting up a parallel "Bhutto Forum".

Having failed to get accommodated in the mainstream party, Mr Zaman said, such people were out to exploit the name of the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for their own interests.

Mr Zaman, who is also a former Punjab president of the PPP, is waiting for instructions from the party chairperson. The matter is likely to come under discussion at a meeting of the party's Central Executive Committee and the Federal Council at Islamabad on Tuesday (today).

Leaders like Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Rana Shoukat Mahmood and Jehangir Badar are holding meetings to launch "Bhutto Forum" and hold a seminar in Lahore on Jan 21. They plan to invite important ex-PPP leaders who parted ways with the party on account of differences with the leadership or are not taking an active part in political activities.

Mr Zaman told Dawn on Monday that "Bhutto Forum" was already in existence, though it was yet to hold a formal meeting, and thus there was no room for a parallel organization. He said Ms Bhutto was the chairperson and she had appointed him as its president.

He recalled that it was in December 2000 that he had been directed by the party to set up Bhutto Forum with the main objective of familiarizing the younger generation with the personality, teachings and services of the late prime minister.

Accordingly, Mr Zaman gave a comprehensive plan for the purpose. In the letter he then wrote to the leadership, he said: "I am of the opinion that we should involve scholars, writers, jurists, economists, intellectuals who have no party affiliation to make the entire exercise non-partisan and objective. PPP leaders have a tendency to participate in seminars and symposia and invariably indulge in cliches, slogan mongering and hackneyed expressions. Bhutto Forum should be intellectually a high profile body bereft of rhetorics and anachronistic jargon".

It was in 2002 that the matter was discussed at a meeting which among others was participated in by Mian Reza Rabbani, Aitzaz Ahsan, Jehangir Badar, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Ehsanul Haq Piracha, Syed Khursheed Shah and all four provincial presidents.

Then these leaders held another meeting where it was proposed that Ms Bhutto should be asked to become patron-in-chief of Bhutto Forum. Mr Zaman said this was a fact that the Bhutto Forum held no formal meeting as some leaders did not want the personality and services of Mr Bhutto projected in a positive light. Opponents felt upset that the Forum had gone into the hands of progressive elements, something they could not reconcile with. Thus, he said, renegades and turncoats had become active to spoil the whole thing.