PESHAWAR, April 16: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has constituted a commission to hold party elections at different levels and prepare a database of its workers, sources told Dawn here on Sunday.

This will be the second time that the PPP has decided to elect office-bearers for district, city, four provinces and the federal capital through an “independent” election commission, the sources said.

Intra-party polls were conducted for the first time by the party’s founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

The commission would not be authorised to conduct an election for the post of the party’s chairperson. Former senator and PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that since Ms Bhutto had twice been elected as chairperson in 1997 and 2001, there was no need to hold a poll for the top position.

The decision to form the election commission was taken during a meeting between Ms Bhutto and former senator Sajjad Bukhari in Dubai last week.

The commission, headed by Sajjad Bukhari, comprises 14 members Begum Tehmas Khan and Begum Arbab Alamgir from NWFP; Justice (retd) Malik Sayed Hasan, Justice (retd) Sharif Hussain Bukhari and MNA Begum Shakeela Arshad from the Punjab; Justice (retd) Abdul Majeed Khanzada, Justice (retd) Agha Saifuddin and MNA Mrs Fauzia Wahab from Sindh; Aziz Memon, Sakhi Sultan advocate and Saifullah Paracha from Balochistan and Ilyas Mohsin, MNA Mrs Fauzia Habib and Qazi Sultan Mehmood from Islamabad.

The PPP will also launch a membership campaign in the four provinces and Islamabad from May 1.

The first meeting of the election commission to discuss important matters related to the party elections would be held on April 20.

The membership drive will be launched in Lahore on May 1, in Karachi on May 8, in Peshawar on May 15 and in Quetta on May 22. The date for Islamabad has not been finalised.

However, sources said that it would be in the first week of June.

The sources said that the PPP had so far been running on an old pattern of mainly selecting office-bearers, which is at variance with the tradition followed by major political organisations in India and European countries. Therefore, the leadership has to set up an independent organisation to hold elections within the party.

The PPP still has office-bearers on ward, tehsil and divisional levels, even though the divisional and tehsil system has been replaced with districts and ward had been changed with union councils as per the Local Government Ordinance, the sources said.

The party has also decided to prepare its electoral rolls and for that purpose it has formulated a clear pattern, according to Mr Babar.

Talking to this correspondent by telephone from Islamabad, Mr Babar said that party workers who registered the names of 25 persons as party workers from their respective areas and submit their membership fees along with their identity cards would be declared as councillors.

“And only these councillors will take part in the party elections on different stages,” the former senator explained.

The councillors would maintain their position even after the party elections, he said.

To a question, he said that the PPP had no list of its party workers and the forthcoming campaign would help to have their exact number.