LAHORE, Jan 2: The Punjab PPP on Wednesday rejected general elections without Ms Benazir Bhutto but asked the district bodies to propose at least three names of the party candidates to the national and provincial assemblies.

Decisions to this effect were taken during a joint meeting of the Punjab Executive Committee and Punjab Council here at Faisal Town. The meeting was presided over by Punjab president Qasim Zia while acting secretary general Raza Rabbani was the chief guest. It discussed the coming general elections, party and national situation and district councils.

Briefing reporters Punjab secretary general Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan and information secretary Naveed Chaudhry said the meeting also rejected the proposal to delimit constituencies through district Nazims and asked the chief election commission to itself supervise the task.

They said after the completion of district organizations of the party, its tehsil bodies had been asked to organize the party at the union council level within 30 days and submit a report to the provincial office.

They said the meeting asked the workers to keep an eye on the process of improvement in the electoral rolls to prevent registration of bogus votes.

The meeting also demanded that NADRA should be made a subject of the Election Commission of Pakistan to ensure preparation of only genuine identity cards.

They said it was the final decision of the PPP that it would not contest the general elections without its chairperson. “Insha Allah, Ms Bhutto will be with us, contest the elections and become the prime minister for the third time,” they said.

They said there would be no compromise regarding the return of Ms Bhutto or her political career.

They said proposals had been sought from the party’s organizations regarding the preparation of election strategy so that the party could contest the polls in a better and planned manner.

They said they could not predict the future of the ARD and the PPP’s central leadership was contacting the alliance’s parties in this regard. They rejected the allegations by Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan.

The PPP leaders said they could not predict whether their party would accept the ARD presidentship or not.

Meanwhile, adopting resolutions the meeting contradicted reports regarding Ms Bhutto’s separation from politics and reposed confidence in her leadership. The meeting paid tributes to the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

It demanded release of Asif Zardari, Yousaf Raza Gilani, Jehangir Badar, Mushtaq Awan and Naveed Qamar and expressed its concern over rise in unemployment and inflation in the country.