Benazir calls party leaders to discuss poll strategy -DAWN

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December 05, 2006	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 13, 1427

Benazir calls party leaders to discuss poll strategy

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has summoned some key party leaders and office- bearers to Dubai for consultation on some important matters, sources told Dawn on Monday.

The sources said Ms Bhutto had called the party leaders to Dubai for an important meeting scheduled for December 9, without telling them the agenda.

However, the sources said Ms Bhutto had invited the PPP leaders to take them into confidence on some important decisions regarding the party’s strategy for the 2007 general elections.

Ms Bhutto has recently returned to Dubai after visiting the US and the UK. She had also held an unscheduled meeting with the Pakistan Muslim League-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif on November 27 during her short stay in London. Moreover, some important political leaders of the country, including former federal minister Abida Hussain and Syed Fakhar Imam, also made an announcement regarding their joining the PPP in a meeting with Ms Bhutto in London.

The sources said Ms Bhutto would also take senior party leaders into confidence over her decision to welcome Abida Hussain, Fakhar Imam and others into the party-fold as it had been conveyed to her that there was resentment in some sections of the party over her decision to welcome the PML dissidents. She is also likely to apprise the party leaders of the names of those persons who wanted to join the party in near future.

Prominent among those called by Ms Bhutto to Dubai are MNA Raja Pervez Ashraf, secretary-general Jahangir Badar, Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi, Foreign Liaison Committee member Palwasha Behram and PPP Punjab President Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi. When contacted, Raja Pervez Ashraf said he was not aware of the exact agenda of the meeting. He, however, said it seemed that the strategy for the next elections would come under discussion.

Meanwhile, another source in the party told Dawn that Ms Bhutto was expected to meet a delegation of the International Republican Institute in Dubai next week.