LAHORE, Nov 30: The Punjab PPP secretary-general claimed here on Thursday that Gen Pervez Musharraf was offering a “compromise” to the PPP if the party supported him for another term as president.

“It is Gen Musharraf who is begging the PPP to accept him president for another term. He is more keen for a compromise than the PPP,” Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas said at a ceremony organised to celebrate the party’s 40th foundation day.

Provincial president Shah Mahmood Qureshi was the main speaker at the ceremony, where much less people were present than the support the party claims to have in the city of some seven million people.

The proceedings remained suspended for some time as the temporary stage raised for the event collapsed under the weight of speakers. The leaders sitting on the stage, some of them women, fell and some sustained minor injuries.

The function was also marred by a scuffle between some people when the secretary-general’s address was in progress. He branded the ‘trouble-makers’ as the agencies’ men.

About half a dozen people, including a joint secretary of the women wing of the Punjab PML, joined the party.

Dancing horses had been brought to welcome the top leadership.

Mr Qureshi recalled the turbulent periods the country had been through during the past four decades and the role played by the PPP leadership to deal with the situations.

He said although Ms Bhutto had been made prime minister twice, she had to face many obstacles as a result of which she could not do for the country what she wanted to do.

Mr Qureshi regretted that the people remained unmoved despite growing lawlessness, joblessness, increase in prices and a number of other problems. However, he said, it was an encouraging sign that the people of Lahore were now awakening. He believed that the rest of the country would follow suit.

Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas called Gen Musharraf an enemy, and said the party would have to close its ranks before fighting him.

He said the general should quit power peacefully or he would have to face a situation similar to the one the late Shah of Iran had to.

He said the PPP did not want to strike any deal with Gen Musharraf and all it wanted was free and fair elections. He said the party would launch a movement in case the electoral process was not transparent.

He said the nation wanted Gen Musharraf take off his uniform but the ruling party leaders who derived their strength from the military uniform were advising the general not to do so.

Mr Abbas, who was senior vice-president before being appointed as the secretary-general, predicted that the present setup would collapse within days because of differences between top leaders and the coalition partners.

He said the future belonged to the PPP.

Lahore PPP president Haji Azizur Rehman Chan invited Ms Bhutto to contest the next election from NA-123 (Lahore).

PML-N leader Javed Hashmi was elected from this seat in the 2002 elections.

Information secretary Farzana Raja, former president Qasim Zia, Study Circle chief Altaf Qureshi, Zafar Masood Bhatty, Azma Zahid Bukhari, Mian Ayub, Sajida Mir and Sohail Malik were also among the speakers.

Malik Mushtaq Awan, Zakariya Butt, Samiullah Khan, Naveed Chaudhry, Munir Ahmad Khan, Pir Nazim Shah, Ehsan Ganjial, Aurangzeb Burki, Shakeela Sheikh, Qurban Khoso, Faiza Malik, Yasmin Misbah, Begum Samina Ghurki, Shamim Niazi and Sagheera Islam were prominent among the participants.