March 16, 2006	Thursday	Safar 15, 1427

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LAHORE, March 15: PPP legislators resolved here on Wednesday to quit their assembly seats at a time to be determined by Ms Benazir Bhutto, and also to play lead role in a movement to pull down the existing dictatorial set-up.

They said the hour for a decisive struggle for the restoration of democracy had come.

The PPP general council, of which legislators from Punjab are also members, and divisional and district office-bearers met under the chairmanship of Qasim Zia and took stock of the situation.

A comprehensive resolution adopted by the participants expressed concern over the internal and external policies of the rulers which had pitted the federating units against one another and isolated the country at the international level. Relations with the neighbouring countries were strained, and India and Afghanistan were being given much more importance than Pakistan, it said.

The resolution said leaders of occupied Kashmir, struggling for independence from India for the past several years, were disappointed by Pakistan to an extent that they had started thinking of alternatives to get their rights.

The resolution, read out by information secretary Naveed Chaudhry and unanimously approved by the participants, made it clear that polls under the supervision of Gen Musharraf and his colleagues would not be accepted.

It said a movement would be started to mount pressure for fresh elections under the supervision of an interim government of national consensus and an independent and impartial chief election commissioner. The proposed movement, schedule for which would be decided by leaders of the opposition parties, would also call for an end to military operation in Waziristan and Balochistan, apportionment of water and other resources and giving a complete autonomy to provinces.

Qasim Zia said the PPP leaders and workers would not bow to dictatorship nor call off their struggle for the rights of the people.

He said the legislators were leaving it to Ms Bhutto to decide as to when they should free up their assembly seats.

Secretary-general Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan said resignations of all legislators were already lying with the chairperson. MNA Shah Mahmood Qureshi said time had come for quitting the assemblies and taking to streets to launch a movement against the rulers.

“There is no use of sitting in the assemblies which are neither sovereign nor have any decision-making power,” he argued.

He said he was yet to see a more discredited, worthless and powerless legislature.

Qureshi said he was going to Dubai during the next few days to hand over his resignation to the chairperson.

He was of the view that if the PPP leaders wanted to bring Ms Bhutto back to Pakistan, they should spread in every nook and corner of the country and mobilize the masses against the rulers.

He was critical of the NAB and the way it had singled out the opposition for accountability. He regretted that it had dropped the suo motu investigations into sugar crisis.

Former secretary-general Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar said the PPP never stopped those bent upon parting ways with it. This, he said, was the best way to purge the party of bad elements.

Ignoring all legal barriers in the presence of which Ms Bhutto could not take part in the electoral process, the PPP leader said the exiled leader would be elected prime minister a third time with a two third majority in parliament.

Altaf Qureshi refuted President Musharraf’s claim that Ms Bhutto did not want any other party leader to become the prime minister, and that it was for her ambition for power that Amin Fahim could not become the country’s chief executive despite an offer to him.

He said he was present at the meeting when Ms Bhutto had allowed Mr Fahim to accept the offer. She had told Mr Fahim that with him in power, she would think as if she herself was the premier.

However, he said when other leaders present at the meeting examined the implications, they advised the PPP chairperson that the offer should not be accepted.

He said the PPP leaders were of the view that with Gen Musharraf centralising all powers, Mr Fahim would not be able to come up to the expectations of the people as a result of which the party would lose its popularity.

Gujrat’s Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul advised the leaders never ever to keep the return of Ms Bhutto on the agenda of party meetings as the former prime minister would decide the schedule in the light of her own calculations and not suggestions made by the party. “A discussion on her plan to come back causes embarrassment both to the chairperson as well as the party,” stammered the bearded leader, known for his plain talk.

A resolution called for the winding up of the NAB and withdrawal of all cases against Ms Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari and release of Javed Hashmi, Yousaf Raza Gilani and other political prisoners.

The meeting also condemned the blasphemous cartoons and the cases instituted against various political leaders and workers who had staged a rally in the city to register their protest.

The resolution alleged that the violence had been planned by the rulers to ban the rallies.

Another resolution opposed privatisation of profit-earning state institutions.

Senator Dr Babar Awan, MNA Chaudhry Manzoor Husain, Farzana Raja, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Begum Beelum Hasnain, Haji Azizur Rahman Chan, Qayyum Jatoi, Sajida Mir and Mian Ayub were also among the speakers.