May 19, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 13, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 18: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Central Secretariat in the federal capital which used to bustle with activity until recently exists today only as a ghost of its past.

It was the undying love for the party’s founding father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the charisma of his daughter Benazir Bhutto that brought devoted party workers in droves to House No.1, Street 85, G-6/4 in all political seasons, good and bad.

But after Benazir was assassinated on December 27, 2007, its noisy political scenes shifted to the posh F-8/2’s House No.8, Street 19, where the new party leader, Asif Ali Zardari, lives.

On Wednesday the PPP co-chairman announced that he had hired the adjacent house to set up his office there, formally sealing the fate of the historic PPP Central Secretariat.

In fact the only actions seen at the secretariat during the past four months were Fateha Khawani and Quran Khawani sessions for Ms Bhutto, arranged by grief-stricken party workers on their own.

The PPP Central Secretariat has been giving a deserted look. A few loyalists of Ms Bhutto, who have been sidelined by the party high-ups, can still be seen at the secretariat, but no jobs to do.

Recently, the party directed those interested to contest the forthcoming by-elections on the PPP ticket to submit their applications to the Central Secretariat, and the aspirants were seen visiting the place for few days. However, the Secretariat was only used as a post office and all the applications were later sent to Zardari House where meetings are being held to finalise names of the candidates.

Former bureaucrat Kamran Zafar is the in-charge and Ibne Rizvi is the office secretary of the Secretariat, which was inaugurated by Benazir Bhutto in 1987. Recently, the party has directed former MNA from Kasur Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed to sit in the Secretariat to look after the organisational matters of the party, but no meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) or Federal Council (FC) or parliamentary group has held at the Secretariat since Ms Bhutto’s assassination.

Shafqat Mehmood, Nazar Kiyani and Khurshid Hassan Mir had also worked as in-charges of the Secretariat in the last 20 years. Former political secretary to Ms Bhutto Naheed Khan and her spouse Senator Safdar Abbasi, who have been practically sidelined by the new PPP leadership, also have a great say in the affairs of the Secretariat.

Some PPP workers believe that direct involvement of Ms Khan and Senator Abbasi in the Secretariat affairs was also one of the reasons that the Zardari loyalists are keeping a distance from the place as they do not want to annoy their new chief.

Unlike Ms Bhutto who, according to some hardcore party workers, used to visit the Central Secretariat almost daily, the co-chairman, Asif Zardari has never visited the Secretariat since assuming the charge after Ms Bhutto’s murder.

According to PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar, Mr Zardari could not visit the secretariat due to “security reasons”. But the explanation has failed to subside rumours that the real reason was that the new leadership of the party has chosen a new set of loyalists.

“Ms Bhutto had a great attachment with the Secretariat and used to call it her personal office,” said a worker having a long association with the Secretariat.

PPP secretary-general Jahangir Badr, despite having his office in the Secretariat, has also visited it only three to four times after Ms Bhutto’s assassination, the sources said.

On the other hand, Zardari House has become the main centre of the national politics, particularly after the February 18 elections. The decision to nominate Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani as the prime minister was also announced by the party at the Zardari House which has become more important than the Prime Minister’s House, as all the federal ministers, chief ministers and leaders from other political parties besides foreign diplomats are frequently visiting the place.

The political activities at Zardari House are so intense that most of the private TV channels have deputed their reporters to stay there for almost throughout the day to report the happenings there as after Feb 18 elections it has become one of the major source of the important political events for the mediapersons.