January 18, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 17, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 17: The Secretary General of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Jehangir Badar, declared on Tuesday that the Kalabagh Dam would not be accepted at any cost. He also said nobody could stop party chairperson Ms Benazir Bhutto from returning before the next general elections.

Badar said this while talking to journalists at a luncheon hosted by the PPP’s Sindh Executive Committee at the residence of PPP Sindh chapter’s Secretary General Nafees Siddiqui during which he also dealt with the evolving and potentially disruptive political situation owing to the regime’s policies.

While dealing with the water issue, Mr Badar said everyone was aware of the water needs for the increasing population and said when this issue was raised 20 years ago, the PPP was of the view that the KBD should not be constructed without any consensus among the four federating units.

He was of the view that in order to resolve contentious issues, it was necessary to have immediate general elections so all disputes between provinces could be resolved in a democratic manner. He said the regime and people were poles apart in their thinking and actions.

Badar said that except for “genuine and undiluted democracy”, there was no other way out for Pakistan from the web of crisis of confidence and leadership, lack of trust and constitutionally valid and representative system of dispensation, poverty, unemployment and ignorance, exacerbated by the policies executed at the whims of one man.

Responding to a question, the PPP secretary general said party chairperson Ms Benazir Bhutto did not require permission from anyone for returning to Pakistan, adding that the situation was similar in 1986 but she had come on her own then.

He scuttled the question about any contacts with the regime in this regard and merely confined himself to saying that Ms Bhutto did not require anyone’s permission.

Mr Badar said the decision for the return of Ms Bhutto had been taken in the November 27, 2005 meeting in the British capital in which she had vowed to return to Pakistan before the general elections. “If the announcement for polls is made now, she will return much before that to lead the campaign,” he said.

When asked whether the PPP would make adjustments with other ARD components in the Senate elections, Badar’s reply was in the positive and said the PPP did not believe in solo flight. It wanted to bring all democratic forces together, he added.

He also rejected rumours of differences between Ms Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Ali Zardari, and said these were “baseless” and added that certain vested interests were spreading such rumours.

When asked whether Ghulam Mustafa Khar, who had recently become active and was organizing a party convention in Multan, was given the task of reactivating the party, Jehangir Badar said the PPP was “active and organised” in all the four provinces. This was perhaps a deliberate attempt to underplay the Khar event, which many insiders said could attract many disgruntled diehard Bhuttoites.

He said Mr Khar had applied to party chairperson one-and-a-half year earlier and had now been allowed to operate within the party framework.

When asked if, besides Mr Khar, there was any move in the party for the inclusion of some more old guards from other provinces, Mr Badar said: “We deal with such matters person-to-person.”

Whoever wanted to rejoin the party should first contact the party chairperson and go through the process, he said.

Badar said there was no need to bring anyone into the party folds, adding that so many senior and time-tested leaders were present in the party.

Ruling out the return of Farooq Leghari and the Patriots, he said, without mincing words that these people would not be allowed into the party folds at any cost.

The President PPP Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, termed the Kalabagh Dam a national issue rather than the issue of Sindh.

He said the PPP was consistent on the KBD since 1986 when the party’s central executive committee had passed a resolution on the subject.

He said under the constitution, Pervez Musharraf had no authority to take decisions on such issues.

General Secretary PPP Sindh Nafees Siddiqui declared that the PPP would forcefully resist if Pervez Musharraf made any announcement about the KBD.

The leader of Opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, Additional Provincial Information Secretary Waqar Mehdi, city chief Rashid Rabbani, Eng Rafique MPA, Khalil Qureshi and others were also present.