March 04, 2007	Sunday	Safar 14, 1428

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LAHORE, March 3: Pakistan People’s Party Punjab president Shah Mahmood Qureshi held out an assurance on Saturday that the status of senior party members would remain unaffected if some new people joined it in view of its ‘growing popularity’.

At a meeting of the party’s provincial council, also attended by the executive body members, he said the PPP valued the services of its committed ideological leaders and workers and would not disappoint them in any eventuality.

The meeting was held at the residence of Secretary-General Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas. Information Secretary Farzana Raja, Aurangzeb Burki, Altaf Qureshi, Raja Riaz, Malik Mukhtar Awan, Sajjad Bukhari, Iqbal Sialvi and several others were among the participants.

Qureshi directed the party leaders and workers to brace for new polls, which he believed would be won by the PPP by big margins. He thought the presence of Ms Bhutto at the time of polls and the `failures’ of the present rulers would make it possible for the PPP to get more votes and seats compared to its tally in 2002 elections.

He said some public meetings would be held in the near future to mobilise the voters.

He urged the leaders to raise funds for the party.

Aurangzeb Burki told the meeting that a number of people had not cleared their dues.

Various participants objected to the enrolment drive and the ongoing intra-party elections.

Qureshi told them that their complaints would be addressed in the second phase.

Mukhtar Awan, denying that Mian Nawaz Sharif had any links with the party, said the PML-N leader was whole-heartedly with the MMA, and the PPP should not ignore this fact while taking any vital decisions.

Farzana Raja said much less voters had been registered by the Election Commission of Pakistan as compared to those enrolled for the 2002 polls. She proposed that the government should provide free computerised ID cards to all citizens and that cards for women should be issued by female staff.

A resolution passed by the participants sought inquiry into the confession made by the alleged killer of a woman provincial minister in Gujranwala that he had also tried to kill PPP chairperson Ms Benazir Bhutto at a meeting in Wazirabad. Expressing reservations regarding the investigation being carried out by the Intelligence Bureau, the resolution said a judicial probe should be ordered into minister’s murder.

Another resolution condemned what it called rigging of the recent by-election in Sindh and treatment meted out to PPP leaders Nafees Siddiqui, Sherry Rehman and others.

Other resolutions expressed serious concern over the growing lawlessness, increase in prices of the essentials and retrenchment of a large number of employees of a bank.