24 November 2004	Wednesday	11 Shawwal 1425

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JHANG, Nov 23: The local organization of the PPP (Parliamentarians) is in turmoil due to an internal strife sparked by the dictatorial attitude of the district president who reportedly replaced several old office-bearers with inept and ineffective cronies without any genuine reason.

"There is a state of revolt against district president Qazi Ali Hussan," told one of the office bearers Dawn immediately after attending an emergency meeting of the rebel group held at the residence of Punjab Council member Chaudhry Khalid Pervaiz.

The meeting, presided over by district senior vice-president Sufi Ashraf, was attended by vice-president, general and information secretaries, besides the entire organizations of the Jhang and Shorkot tehsils, including their presidents and general secretaries.

The sacked presidents of Chiniot tehsil and Jhang city and many old office-bearers and workers, urged the divisional and provincial party high command to stop patronizing an unpopular person only because he was an MPA and their colleague and save the party from total elimination from a district which once was its stronghold.

The meeting also adopted a resolution, demanding restoration of the Jhang city party organization which was unconstitutionally sacked by the Punjab leadership on the recommendation of district president. The second demand was not to nominate any newcomers to any senior office in the district, city or tehsil organizations.

The resolution also urged the district president to establish a party office at the district headquarters, hold regular monthly meetings and ensure the invitation and participation of bona fide party office-bearers instead of his personally nominated illegal office holders.

Sufi Ashraf, a founder member of the party in Jhang, a former city president and ticket holder, told Dawn that differences between old party workers and the district president started one year ago when they started criticizing him for not establishing a party office, holding no meetings and doing nothing to open any new party units.

The district president who, being a sitting MPA, enjoyed the full blessings and backing of party's divisional and provincial leadership, retaliated to the criticism by sacking the entire Jhang city organization without any concrete reason or giving them an opportunity to clarify their position through a formal show cause notice.

New city president Iqbal Anjum, nominated on his recommendation, was a People's Youth Organization leader. He said when Iqbal too started lashing out at him, when he did not attend Z. A. Bhutto's death anniversary at Larkana and turn up at a workers convention and a protest camp in Jhang, he too was shown the door by the party's Punjab leadership, to please the district president. He was again given no chance to clarify his position.

In the meanwhile, the schedule of by-election to the Jhang seat was announced. The party's central leadership was keen to contest the election. The new city organization nominated by the district president comprised of his dear ones, who did not enjoy even the following of a small locality.

Consequently, the party could not field its candidate or support any other candidate as the district president did not bother to visit the constituency even once during the one-and-a-half-month election campaign or before that to take the local leaders and workers into confidence about fielding a candidate or supporting any candidate from outside the party.

The party's central leadership took serious note and an inquiry was held by Ms Naheed Khan and Jahangir Badr. The negligence on the part of district president was proved, but again with the support of the Punjab leadership, no action was taken against him.

When contacted, president Qazi Hussan strongly refuted the charges levelled against him and defended the changes brought about by the Punjab president on his recommendations.

He claimed that the action was taken against the sacked office-bearers because of their continued liaison with federal minister Faisal Saleh Hayat in violation of the party line given to them.

Denying his claim, Jamil Ansari, a sacked city president, said neither he nor any of his colleagues had any connection with the minister. On the contrary, Mr Ansari alleged, the district president and some other important leaders from Faisalabad and Lahore were secretly in touch with Mr Hayat and Mr Hussan would have joined the Patriots had the Punjab chief minister agreed to give him a ministerial slot.