KOHAT, Feb 11: A senior PPP leader and former federal minister, Syed Iftikhar Hussain Gilani, has resigned from the party again, following differences with Chairperson Benazir Bhutto, sources close to the PPP hierarchy told Dawn on Monday.

The differences between him and Ms Bhutto emerged over the allotment of party tickets for the proposed October election and the candidature for the office of prime minister.

Earlier, Mr Gilani had left the party when Ms Bhutto had refused to appoint him president and fielded Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari for the position instead. Later, Mr Gilani had joined the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and got elected as MNA from Kohat. This time he is going to join the PML (Like-minded), sources said.

An old guard of the PPP with a relationship spanning 26 years, Mr Gilani is the elder brother of incumbent NWFP minister for information and education, Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani.

The decision came after a meeting held some time back among Ms Bhutto, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Mr Gilani in Dubai where the former prime minister had been informed that President Pervez Musharraf had agreed to allow the PPP to contest the polls by retaining the post of president for himself and that of the prime minister for a candidate of his choosing.

Ms Bhutto refused to accept the conditions and asked the party leaders to first secure the release of Asif Ali Zardari and only after that they could enter into any deal with the military regime.

Sources said that the leaders were so annoyed that Mr Gilani at once announced his decision to leave the party regretting that Ms Bhutto had no regard for the services of senior leaders and had been repeating mistakes one after another just to bring forward Asif Zardari which, he believed, might cause damage to the party’s popularity and unrest among its workers.

They said that a meeting of the Pakistan Muslim League was scheduled for Tuesday in Islamabad where some important decisions would be taken for the forthcoming election. The meeting would also discuss the possible nomination of Mr Gilani as the next prime minister and, if agreed, he would announce his joining of the party at the residence of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in a few days.

Mr Gilani was not invited to the PPP convention held at Kohat the other day, causing his group to boycott the function. In his speech at the convention, acting PPP Secretary-General Raza Rabbani told the party workers that Mr Gilani had contacted the PML leaders to get the future prime ministership. Therefore, Mr Rabbani pointed out, he was not invited to the convention.

Mr Gilani told his friends here on Monday that he had been constantly ignored by the PPP high command while making important decisions and a group was trying to strike a deal with the government putting at stake the party’s position and future.