LAHORE, Feb 26: The Punjab PPP has announced a "Remove Musharraf-Bring Benazir" drive from next month. At a meeting of party officials here on Thursday, provincial PPP president Qasim Zia said protest camps would be set up in all divisions one by one to mobilize party workers. The campaign would start in the Multan division in March. The focus would be shifted to Rawalpindi after April 15.

The meeting was convened to discuss party's performance in Feb 13-20 protest camps and make preparations for return of the chairperson to the country. The participants included members of the central executive committee and the Punjab federal council besides the district office-bearers.

He said the exiled chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, would announce the date of her return a month in advance. Senior vice-president Yousaf Raza Gilani emphasized the need for injecting new blood into the party. He said the chairperson would allow former Punjab governor Mustafa Khar to join the party only after taking workers into confidence over the issue.

Criticizing MMA's role in the passage of 17th constitutional amendment, he alleged that the religious alliance was the 'A team' of the army. Reiterating PPP's pledge to restore 1973 constitution to its original form, he demanded free and fair general election under an independent Election Commission.

Commenting on Ponm's meeting in Islamabad, he said that people demanded a new constitution when all powers were entrusted to the president in the garb of a devolution plan.

Former foreign minister Sardar Asef Ahmad Ali said that Gen Musharraf could either save the generals or the nuclear programme. Criticizing the government for humiliating nuclear scientists, he supported Ms Bhutto's demand for constituting a parliamentary commission to probe nuclear proliferation.

He said Pakistan could be bailed out of the crisis only by restoring democracy. "Any change of government must be made through constitutional means." Earlier, district office-bearers vented out their anger over the inefficiency of leaders and the VIP culture. They said the party could not achieve good results in the polls unless this culture was changed and the leaders were made to sit with ordinary workers.

They also lamented lack of accountability and discipline within the party. On the occasion, a message from Ms Bhutto was also read out in which she said that time had come for the party to assert itself, forcefully play its political role and lead the people towards emancipation by retrieving their political and economic rights from the usurpers.

The convention also adopted several resolutions in which it vowed to bring back the chairperson during the current calender year, demanded release of political prisoners including Asif Zardari, expressed concern at the wheat flour crisis, price hike and the deteriorating law and order situation.

It also condemned the suspension of official ads to some newspapers and humiliation of national heroes and other scientists. It pledged not to allow return of the Patriots to the party fold and termed the parliament "incomplete" in the absence of opposition leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate.

The meeting demanded that the NAB should be disbanded, alleging that it was a black-mailing tool for utilizing state resources for the stability of Gen Musharraf's rule. It also sought complete restoration of democracy and supremacy of democratic institutions, saying that all affairs were still being controlled by the presidency.