LAHORE, July 19: All PPP members of the National Assembly and leaders of the opposition in the Punjab and Sindh assemblies submitted their resignations to party chairperson Benazir Bhutto at a meeting in London on Wednesday and authorised her to send them to the respective speakers as and when necessary.

This step was taken in the light of a decision taken at an ARD meeting on July 2 to resist Gen Pervez Musharraf’s plan to get himself re-elected from the present assemblies.

According to a participant, the meeting also discussed the party’s ability to move a no-confidence motion against the prime minister, as decided at the July 2 meeting.

It was observed that the PPP did not have the required numerical strength to table such a resolution in the National Assembly without cooperation from other opposition parties. Therefore, an ARD committee comprising Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Iqbal Zafar Jhagra would contact other parties and seek their support.

A PPP leader who attended the Wednesday meeting said that it must not be possible for the opposition to table the no-trust motion against the prime minister on August 1. “We’ll not be able to complete the numbers by that day”.

Ms Bhutto said free and fair elections could not be expected under the supervision of the present rulers. She called for the establishment of a caretaker government to ensure fairness of the elections. She directed party leaders to prepare for the elections. Maintaining that those who had changed loyalty after the 2002 elections would not be taken back, the PPP chairperson said that candidates would be put up on all seats held by the PPP-Patriots.

The participants criticised the government for sugar and cement shortages, price-hike, joblessness, stock market crash and privatisation of the Pakistan Steel Mills.