ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: PPP’s decision to boycott the presidential election was seen by political analysts here as a saving grace for those leaders of the party who were against their chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s power-sharing deal with Gen Pervez Musharraf and wanted to give an impression that there had not been a complete sell-out.

The party took the decision to boycott the poll on Saturday morning after long-drawn discussions for two days.

The party leadership had failed to take a decision about participating, or otherwise, in the presidential election due to a clear division in the parliamentary group seen during two rounds of meeting on Friday.

Sources in the party told Dawn that a small but important group of hardliners critical of Ms Bhutto’s decision of reaching an understanding with Gen Musharraf in return for withdrawal of cases against her and other party activists strongly opposed the idea of taking part in the election.According to the sources, strong protests by Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Mian Raza Rabbani during the parliamentary group’s meetings led to the decision to abstain.

The two PPP stalwarts were of the view that the PPP had committed a mistake by not resigning from the assemblies and, thereby, had provided legitimacy to Gen Musharraf’s election.

Mr Ahsan termed the National Reconciliation Ordinance a weak piece of legislation and told the party MNAs and senators that it could easily be quashed by courts. According to the sources, both the PPP leaders said that Gen Musharraf was today the most unpopular person in the country and by providing him legitimacy at this crucial time, the party was strengthening his hands and making him powerful.

Mr Ahsan said it would be wrong to presume that if Amin Fahim got the votes of his party, he would be declared elected if Gen Musharraf was disqualified by the Supreme Court.

The sources said that PPP secretary general Raja Pervez Ashraf and Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi were leading the group of the legislators who wanted to take part in the polling.

A PPP legislator, who didn’t want to be named, said that Makhdoom Amin Fahim presided over the meetings, but had no authority to take a decision. After listening to the arguments from both sides, he left the matter to Ms Bhutto who finally approved the plan to boycott the election.