ISLAMABAD, July 18: Senior leaders of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) have expressed their displeasure over the decision of the party’s Punjab chapter to make seat adjustments with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) in the local government elections, sources said here on Monday. Talking to Dawn, a senior PPP leader said the decision to cooperate with the MMA at any level, particularly after the passage of the Hasba Bill, would damage the party’s image both at the domestic as well as international level.

It may be mentioned that PPP Punjab President Qasim Zia after a meeting with MMA leader Liaquat Baloch in Lahore on Monday announced that the party would make seat adjustments with the religious alliance in the local government elections.

Senior PPP leaders were of the view that on one hand the PPP had been stating that it was not ready to launch a joint anti- government movement with the MMA at any cost due to the past record of the religious alliance, and on the other, the party was announcing seat adjustments with it and that too at the district council level.

A senior PPP senator said there was resentment within the party ranks over this decision of the PPP Punjab chapter. He claimed that there was a big group of parliamentarians and other leaders in the PPP who believed that the party should stick to its principled stand of not cooperating with the MMA even if it had to lose some seats at the union council level.

Another PPP leader and deputy information secretary of the ARD Munir Ahmed Khan, when contacted, termed it an ill-timed decision by the PPP Punjab, saying it would strengthen MMA’s blackmailing powers.

He was of the view that the MMA was still acting as a “B- team” of the military regime. He claimed that the MMA even had indirect support of Gen Pervez Musharraf in getting the controversial Hasba Bill passed in the NWFP Assembly.

Mr Khan was of the view that if there was a need for cooperation with the MMA in some union councils, seat adjustments could have been made with them without making a formal announcement.

He said history showed that the MMA men could not be trusted and the party would definitely be damaged by this move. Moreover, he said, there would be no big change in the results of the local government elections even after making seat adjustments with the MMA.

PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar, when contacted for his comments, said actually party chairperson Benazir Bhutto had left it to the local leadership to decide about seat adjustments with the clear instruction that no cooperation could be extended to the ruling party or any of its coalition partners.

PPP Punjab President Qasim Zia, when contacted, said he had not announced any alliance with the MMA and had not violated any party directives.

Mr Zia said actually he had authorized the party’s district presidents to make seat adjustments with the MMA with the sole object of defeating government candidates.

When told about the resentment among some party members over his decision, Mr Zia said the PPP had been making decisions on issue-to-issue basis. He said the PPP Punjab and the MMA had only agreed to cooperate with each other in the union councils, where they felt necessary, to defeat the government candidates.