June 10, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 24, 1428

LAHORE, June 9: Important leaders of the ruling PML fear that the party may lose the upcoming general elections if the powers that be failed to extend an olive branch to the protesting lawyers, the opposition parties and journalists and if their movement against the government continued unabated when the polls are only months away.

In separate interviews with Dawn, these leaders, who did not like to be identified, expressed their serious concern over the prevailing situation and said the PML might have to sit on the opposition benches in case effective damage control measures were not taken immediately to improve the atmosphere and neutralize the impact of the propaganda being made by all anti-government forces to poison the voters’ minds.

These leaders say that a party whose own victory in the next elections is uncertain could not be expected to do much for the re-election of Gen Musharraf as president, if the matter was left to the new assemblies to decide.

The party is divided over the issue of cooperation with the PPP of Ms Benazir Bhutto. While some are strongly opposed to the idea because of ideological differences, others are of the view that both PML and the PPP are ‘moderate’ forces, a cooperation agreement between them should be reached before the elections to defeat the ‘extremist’ parties like the MMA, the PML-N and the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf. Some others think that the issue would be relevant only after the polls.

“The PML and the PPP would not like to cooperate with each other in case either of them won the polls, and any understanding between the two would become irrelevant if both lost the elections”, argued a leader who is in favour of cooperation between the two rival parties much before the polls.

One leader argued that Ms Benazir Bhutto was in a weaker position at present and could agree to some understanding with the PML at this stage. But in case she won the next elections, she would either not like to join hands with the PML at all or a deal would be possible on her terms only, he said.

The party leaders have different views about Gen Musharraf’s complaint that the ruling party always left him in the lurch in difficult situations.

Some say that since all important decisions are taken by Gen Musharraf, he alone is responsible for the resultant adverse consequences. They said all powers were being exercised by the president and thus the discredit for all his decisions would go to him.

They recalled that the decision to move a reference against the Chief Justice of Pakistan had been taken by President Musharraf without taking the ruling PML into confidence. A minister said that even the cabinet did not know that a reference was being sent against the CJP.

Similarly, another leader said, it was President Musharraf who made Mian Azhar president of the ruling party and then replaced him with Chaudhry Shujaat Husain. The decision to make Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali the prime minister and then to remove him and have Chaudhry Shujaat elected for a couple of months was also taken unilaterally by the president. Then, the leader said, Mr Shaukat Aziz was got elected as the prime minister because the president wanted to see him as the country’s chief executive.