22 January 2004	Thursday	29 Ziqa'ad 1424

LAHORE, Jan 21: Bhutto World Foundation, launched a couple of days ago by some leaders who are or have been with the PPP, held its first seminar here on Wednesday with the speakers pledging to work for the mission of the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto , promotion of politics of consensus in particular, braving all adversities.

The participants, about a 1,000 in all, also adopted a resolution calling for the withdrawal of all baseless cases against PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto, permission her to return home and immediate release of her spouse Asif Ali Zardari. They also demanded the government allow deposed prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and former Punjab chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to come back to Pakistan so that they could also use their energies to steer the country out of the multiple challenges facing it.

Former law minister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada came all the way from London to address the seminar, where all Punjab and Lahore PPP leaders BWF secretary-general Rana Shaukat Mahmood had invited were conspicuous by their absence, ostensibly because of the suspicions they have privately been expressing about the motives behind the initiative.

However, Ms Bhutto's spokesman Munawwar Anjum, MPA Talat Yaqub, Qayyum Nizami, Chaudhry Sultan Ali, Afzal Sandhu, Chaudhry Badruddin, Begum Shamim Niazi, Tariq Waheed Butt, Aslam Gill, Syed Nazim Shah, Khalid Ghurki and Dilawar Butt were among the participants.

Though members of the party's provincial organization were participating in the executive committee meeting at about the same time the seminar was in progress, they were less likely to turn up at the seminar even if no such meeting had been scheduled.

PPP Secretary-General Jehangir Badar, former governor Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar, PML leader Begum Abida Husain who had left the PPP more than two decades back, former judge Malik Saeed Hasan were among the speakers. It started raining as the seminar proceedings began and the rain grew in intensity as they progressed. Power outage interrupted the activity for a while.

Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, nicknamed as "Sohna Munda" by the late ZA Bhutto, shed light on how the charismatic leader had pulled the country out of the crises he had inherited at the time of taking over. He recalled how Mr Bhutto had refused to give in to Russian pressures and instead persuaded then prime minister Kosygen to use his good offices to tell then Indian premier Indira Gandhi to set free Pakistani prisoners of war and return the captured territory without expecting anything in return.

He said Mr Bhutto was a courageous leader and despite being overthrown by Gen Zia, he was not afraid of death. Mr Pirzada was critical of the LFO, the MMA-government deal and the negative impact of the National Security Council on the parliamentary democracy. However, he said, the religious alliance's deal with the ruling party was a blessing in disguise as in the times to come it would not be possible for the MMA to block the PPP's way to power.

He believed that the future belonged to the PPP and the political situation would witness a qualitative change once Gen Musharraf took off his military uniform in the light of the undertaking he gave to the MMA in return for its support to the LFO.

The former law minister disclosed that he was writing a book, which would be completed by the end of the year, to point out a number of distortions of historical facts.

Though expelled from the PPP in 1985, Mr Pirzada said he would work for the ideals set by ZA Bhutto. PML leader Begum Abida Husain said progressive forces would have to get united to counter those army leaders who use various parties to serve their interests on various occasions.

Expressing her resentment over the way the Constitution had been subordinated to the army through the methodology prescribed by Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, the former minister and ambassador said Gen Musharraf should have taken Abdul Hafeez Pirzada along to find a better way out of the crisis created by the LFO. She was of the view that having played the key role in the framing of the 1973 Constitution, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada would have had a sympathetic approach and proposed some way to preserve the basic law.

Military leaders, Begum Abida said, always regarded themselves above the constitution, regardless of the fact that nations toying with their constitutions have to work under dictates from other countries.

She was critical of the way the scientists were being humiliated. She said they were being interrogated although the government was denying it. PPP Secretary-General Jehangir Badar said the PPP would like to have a dialogue with liberal forces to evolve consensus on important national issues.

He said a gulf had been created between the PPP and other political parties after the execution of Mr Bhutto as the former held the latter responsible for complicity. But, he recalled, with the passage of time the PPP reviewed its thinking in the larger national interest and closed ranks with other parties. Mr Badar said Mr Bhutto was a man of principles and he had refused to leave the country along with his family, an offer made by Gen Zia though Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar.

Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar said Ms Bhutto was the most popular leader of the country and he regarded her as his leader. As for Punjab PPP President and Information Secretary Qasim Zia and Naveed Chaudhry, respectively, the former governor said they were like his children ' or brothers ' and he was not their rival. "I don't want grouping in the party".

All praise for Mr Bhutto, the former governor said that he had been eliminated as part of a conspiracy to deprive the Islamic world of a capable leader. He believed that the day was not far off when the PPP would re-emerge as a force like it was in 1970, when it had swept the elections, giving crushing defeats to all rivals.

This was the first time that Mr Khar did not talk of his much-criticized power sharing formula. Mr Khar has been saying that the solidarity of the country is in danger and the federation could be saved only if political forces share power with the army for at least ten years. Aslam Gurdaspuri and Rana Shaukat Mahmood also addressed.