LAHORE, Nov 22: The Punjab PPP executive committee appreciated the Supreme Court's decision to grant bail to Asif Ali Zardari, eight years after his detention.

If the judicial verdicts were as transparent as the one in Zardari's case, the supremacy of law would be established, party's information secretary Naveed Chaudhry said at a news conference after the meeting. Provincial president Qasim Zia presided.

Prominent among the participants were secretary-general Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan, deputy information secretary Altaf Qureshi, divisional coordinators and legislators.

Naveed Chaudhry said the provincial organization would celebrate the release of Mr Zardari from Nov 23 to 29. The Lahore women's wing gathered outside the Lahore Press Club to praise the apex court's verdict and celebrate Mr Zardari's innocence. They included Sajida Mir, Talat Yaqoob and Shamim Niazi.

According to Naveed Chaudhry, Ms Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari phoned the Punjab executive and expressed their satisfaction over the decision. The executive demanded that the cases against the PPP chairperson and other party leaders should be taken back immediately. The participants also called for fresh elections as the present setup had failed to deliver.

Referring to President Musharraf's plans to construct Kalabagh dam, the PPP leader said the general would not be able to evolve a consensus despite his claims. He said a consensus would not be possible without a dialogue, and dialogue would not be possible as long as an individual was calling the shots.

The meeting gave no importance to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's address to the nation, saying he had tried to copy his 'boss'. Whatever the prime minister had said was nothing more than a lip service, and the people's problems would continue to multiply in the times to come, the meeting said. They were of the view that joblessness was increasing as also the number of those living below poverty line.

According to Naveed Chaudhry, the participants were critical of the utterances of MQM leader Altaf Husain during his visit to New Delhi. They said it was regrettable that the ruling party had failed to take notice of the self-exiled leader for negating the Two-Nation Theory.