09 February 2004	Monday	17 Zilhaj 1424

ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: The president of the unified Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, will visit all the provincial capitals to discuss appointment of office-bearers and reorganization of the party.

Senator Tariq Azim, party's information secretary, said the general council meeting of the five factions of the PML was expected to be convened in the second or third week of the current month.

The party president would also ensure that the process should be completed before the month's end. It was being expected that the reorganization of the party would be completed by March 23, when the party president would announce the nomination of central and provincial office-bearers, sources said.

Mr Hussain would pay a day-long visit to Peshawar on the first leg of the tour on Monday, where he would hold meetings with party leaders including the rival groups of his own faction and call on the NWFP governor.

He would try to bring about a reconciliation between the groups of provincial acting party president Syed Ali Shah and that led by the PML-Q central vice-president, Nisar Mohammad Khan.

After appointment of Salim Saifullah Khan as secretary- general of the PML-Q, the provincial party president's office remained vacant due to the grouping and the party president was unable to select a replacement.

Both the groups are vying to grab the provincial party organization. Mr Hussain has reportedly decided to bring a neutral man as the provincial party president to end the acrimony among his party's old guards.

There are a number of names being considered for the office of the unified PML president in the NWFP, where the party is in the opposition. Among the prospective names, the sources said, was that of Abbas Sarfaraz Khan, who emerged on the political scene when he was picked up as a member of the federal cabinet by the military government of Gen Pervez Musharraf.