January 23, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 13, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 22: The Pakistan People’s Party neither supports the postponement of the February 18 elections nor is it in touch with the establishment with regard to its idea of a national consensus government prior to the elections.

This was stated by the leader of the opposition in the Senate, Mian Raza Rabbani, after the PPP’s Karachi chapter meeting held here to discuss modalities of the election campaign and in memory of the slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Monday.

“There is no ground for the postponement of elections,” he said, and added, “even after the great tragedy faced by the party as a result of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, we insisted on timely holding of elections because we believe that is the only way to save the federation and banish extremism.”

About PPP’s idea of a national government, Mr Rabbani said that national consensus could be evolved by political parties with or without national government. “We believe that due to the enormity of the problem, if the PPP gets the requisite majority, it will go for a national government,” he added.

Referring to the reports giving the impression that General Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leadership were about to strike a deal over the formation of a national government prior to the general elections, he said: “I will go by what the PML(N) is saying and not by the reports dished out by the government sources.”He said that reports of a rapprochement between PML (N) and General Musharraf were designed by the government to fog the situation and drive a wedge between the PPP, PML (N) and other opposition parties. He was confident that if there was any substantial development between the PML (N) and the Establishment, PML (N) leadership would take the PPP into confidence.

When asked to comment on the army chief’s directive about the withdrawal of military personnel serving in other government organisations, Mr Rabbani said that “intentions seem to be good” but added that this would depend on how the elected government was allowed to function.

He said that elections on time were necessary to undermine the ruling elite’s control over resources which were denied to the common man.

Earlier, the PPP’s Karachi division chapter deliberated upon the matters related to the upcoming elections, law and order situation as well as arrest of party activists and supporters after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The meeting was chaired by Sindh PPP chief Syed Qaim Ali Shah at the party’s secretariat here. Among others, Mian Raza Rabbani, Nafees Siddiqui, N.D. Khan, Taj Haider, Shahadat Awan, Rashid Rabbani, Waqar Mehdi, Saeed Ghani, Afaq Shahid, Nafeesa Raja, Farzana Baloch, Mirza Maqbool, Qasim Baloch and Fareed Ansari attended the meeting.

Taking serious notice of the arrest of PPP workers and supporters in false cases after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the participants of the meeting demanded immediate release of arrested party workers and supporters and withdrawal of fabricated cases against them. They claimed that 14,000 PPP workers in Sindh alone were nominated in the FIRs.

They criticized the caretaker government for postings and transfers in violation of the Election Commission’s directives. The meeting decided that a delegation of the PPP Sindh would meet the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan to apprise him of the situation and reiterate the party’s concerns over pre-poll rigging.

The meeting also formed a committee, headed by Nafees Siddiqui, to establish contact with other political parties and entities.