DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Feb 8: Raza Rabbani, acting Secretary-General of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said here on Thursday evening the party workers were the asset of the PPP. He was addressing a PPP Workers’ Convention.

He admitted that workers were ignored in the past and were not given their due share but now the party had decided to give them due importance and resolve their problems.

Rabbani said the PPP had suffered in the past because some independent members were allowed to join hands for the formation of the PPP government but now no “imported leaders” would not be allowed within the party ranks.

The second and the third rank of the party leadership as also that of the Peoples Students Federation, he further said, were “a pride of the PPP.”

Rabbani denied any deal between the PPP and the government on Benazir’s return, and stressed the party had no history of such deals. He recalled that party’s founding chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto preferred to sacrifice his life rather than making any kind of deal. He announced that Benazir Bhutto would return home on the strength of party workers and not through any deal.

Criticising Aftab Sherpao, the PPP secretary-general said he was not worthy of the status he gained through the party, and urged the party workers to beware of the likes of Aftab Sherpao and not allow anyone to use the party platform for personal gains.

Earlier, Khawaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, NWFP PPP President, and former general secretary of the provincial PPP Qamar Abbas also addressed the convention.

Hoti said the party was going through a critical phase and only the workers could strengthen it.

He said the workers would decide as to whom the party tickets be awarded for the forthcoming general elections and no leader would be allowed to contest without the consent and approval of the party workers.

Criticizing government’s graduation condition, Hoti said the PPP would not allow only three per cent graduates to rule over 97 per cent non-graduates.