ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of Benazir Bhutto, which was forced to fight 2002 general elections as Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), continues to file its annual statement of accounts before the Election Commission in the name of PPP, too, in the hope to regain its popular name.

“Despite objections from the Election Commission that they are not registered in the name of PPP, we regularly file our statement of accounts as both PPP and PPPP,” Spokesman for Benazir Bhutto Farhatullah Babar told Dawn here on Friday.

In 2004, two dissident groups of the party, namely PPP- Patriots led by Rao Sikander Iqbal and PPP-Sherpao led by Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao went for a merger and applied for the title of Pakistan People’s Party. The then chief election commissioner, Justice (retired) Irshad Hasan Khan, granted their request.

Before the 2002 general elections, the commission had declared that political parties heads who were convicted and not present in the country would not be eligible to fight the elections. Since the PPP chairperson was convicted and living in self-exile, therefore the PPP got itself registered under a different name, PPP-Parliamentarians, to avoid disqualification.

“We have already challenged before the Sindh High Court (SHC) the decision of the commission of granting the name of PPP to the patriots and the sherpao group and believe that we would win the case before the next general elections due in 2007,” Senator Farooq Naek said when contacted.

The petition has been filed in the name of party chief Benazir Bhutto and secretary-general Jehangir Badr with a pleading that the party title was awarded to some one else with a malafide intention without prior notice to it.

The SHC has already served notices on Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan, the election commission, Rao Sikander, and Aftab Sherpao, however, it has not yet fixed the next hearing date.

Soon after the October 2002 elections, different factions of Pakistan Muslim League, including PML-Q, PML-Zia, PML-Jinnah, PML-Junejo and Millat Party, announced their merger to form a new party and applied for the title of 1Pakistan Muslim League’, which was allowed by Irshad Hasan Khan.