May 10, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 9: President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan on Friday appeared before the parliamentary board of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which met here to finalise its recommendations for the award of party tickets for the June 26 by-elections.

The meeting was held at Zardari House, instead of the party’s Central Secretariat, and presided over by secretary general Jahangir Badar.

Sources told Dawn that almost all the probables appeared before the board comprising provincial presidents, secretary generals, divisional office-bearers and leader of the house in the Senate Raza Rabbani.

Ch Aitzaz Ahsan, who had served as minister in the cabinet of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in her two stints, has submitted his nomination papers from NA-55 Rawalpindi constituency which was vacated by senior Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, who had won three seats in the Feb 18 elections. In his nomination papers, Mr Ahsan who is also a member of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) had left the column of “party affiliation” blank as the party had not yet awarded him ticket.

Six-time winner of National Assembly seat former minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, faced worst defeat in his political career in the Feb 18 polls and had to forfeit his security deposits in both NA-55 and NA-56 seats to the PML-N candidates, has also submitted his papers for the by-polls from NA-55 seat.

The sources said that Amir Fida Piracha, who had contested the Feb 18 elections from NA-55 on the PPP ticket, had submitted his nomination papers at the behest of the party leadership.

Mr Ahsan boycotted the Feb 18 elections as part of the lawyers’ ongoing movement for the restoration of the deposed judges of the superior courts. The sources said the board had finalised the names of the candidates and now it would submit its recommendations to the party co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, for a final decision.

The sources in the PPP said the award of a party ticket to Mr Ahsan hinged on the terms of events about the restoration of the deposed judges.

A senior PPP leader, when contacted, confirmed that the decision on award of the party ticket to Mr Ahsan depended as to how he reacted on the issue of the restoration of the deposed judges. He said no doubt that Mr Ahsan’s credentials were strong and his qualification was better than Amir Fida Piracha on many counts, but when it came to “devotion and loyalty” to the party, then of course the party would have to wait and see whether Mr Ahsan gave preference to his position as SCBA president or as a “party loyalist”.

He said if Mr Ahsan announced agitation against the PPP-led coalition government on the issue of the deposed judges’ restoration then it would be considered a violation of the party discipline and he would definitely not get the party ticket.