February 08, 2008	Friday	Muharram 29, 1429

HALA, Feb 7: Pakistan Peop-les Party’s senior vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim said on Thursday that co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was supposed to lead the party till the chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari completed his studies and returned to the country.

Talking to reporters after the Chehlum of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Mr Fahim refuted reports of differences between him and Mr Zardari over the party’s candidate for the post of prime minister. He said the PPP central executive committee would take a decision in this regard.

He said no party leader ‘other than the co-chairman or the central executive committee (CEC)’ had the authority to speak on policy issues. He supported the idea of formation of a government of national consensus after the election.

He said the PPP would have to work with President Pervez Musharraf because his election had been validated by the Supreme Court and parliament. “Who are we to object to his (Musharraf’s) election when the same president had been allowed to make amendments by the Supreme Court which itself didn’t have that power,” Mr Fahim said.

He said the government wanted the election to yield a hung parliament.

In reply to a question the post-poll situation in Sindh, he said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the PPP would have to sit together. He said the MQM was likely to retain its seats in parliament.

Mr Fahim said Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan had gone too far in the struggle for judiciary.

He called for stringent security measures for Mr Zardari’s public meeting in Thatta on Saturday.

Answering a question, he said it was the right of the heir of the deceased to make the will public or keep it private.

Mr Fahim said no one had asked Ms Bhutto to emerge from her vehicle’s sun-roof. “Someone among us should have prevented her from doing so. It was her own initiative after seeing great enthusiasm among her supporters.”

Regarding the politics of dynasty and inheritance, he said similar situations existed in the United States, India and Sri Lanka.

He said the party stuck to its demand of a UN-sponsored probe into Ms Bhutto’s assassination and if a PPP government was formed it would take up the matter in accordance with the CEC’s decision.