LAHORE: The PPP has disowned its veteran leader Aitzaz Ahsan’s statement against Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and has alleged the senior leader has become a part of Imran Khan’s “anti-democracy agenda”.

A leader of the PPP Punjab chapter listed down Mr Ahsan’s steps against the party since the 1970s.

“Aitzaz Ahsan has become a full part of Imran Khan’s conspiracy to derail democracy in the country [by stating that the army chief has rescued the Sharifs from conviction in cases],” Punjab PPP acting president Rana Farooq Saeed told a press conference on Wednesday.

Mr Saeed stopped short of naming Gen Bajwa while responding to the allegation levelled by Mr Ahsan in a media talk a day ago.

The invitation extended to the media for the presser, however, did mention that it would be about Aitzaz Ahsan’s statement about Gen Bajwa and the National Accountability Bureau.

Mr Saeed said the former PPP Senator had been defending Khan’s “fraudulent” politics for a long time, while constantly opposing the leadership and policies of the PPP.

He said Mr Ahsan supported Khan’s political engineering by remaining silent when the latter got Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Talpur arrested through NAB and also registered “false” cases against Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

“The past of Aitzaz Ahsan proves that he remained a part of political engineering against the PPP during every regime, and he used politics only for making money and for personal interests.”

“In 1977, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the PPP were in trouble, he left the party and joined its arch-political rival Tehreek-i-Istaqlal; in 2007-08, he stood by Nawaz Sharif to get Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry restored.”

Mr Saeed said Mr Ahsan’s continuous statements in support of Imran Khan were making PPP workers angry; they were demanding that he be removed from the central executive committee of the party and his party membership also be cancelled.

“As the acting president of the Punjab PPP, I am representing the aspirations and demands of workers from all across the province. We are demanding that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Asif Ali Zardari and the Central Executive Committee expel Aitzaz Ahsan from the body and suspend his basic membership.”

He claimed the workers wanted to siege the Zaman Park residence of Mr Ahsan as a protest against his support for Imran Khan and that the provincial chapter should take a decision on the demand.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2022