LAHORE, April 15: The Punjab PPP on Monday issued show-cause notices to its district and tehsil Nazimeen for participating in the Faisalabad public meeting of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Provincial chief Qasim Zia told a press conference after a party meeting here that he had directed general secretary Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan to seek a report from those who had violated party line on the issue and take disciplinary action against them on behalf of the party.

He said party workers had also been directed to hold accountable their area’s Nazim in this regard.

He announced that those who were violating the party policy would have no place in the party and they would not be awarded tickets in the next general elections.

He condemned the Multan district DCO for actively campaigning for tabling a no-trust move against Nazim Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the house. He said the DCO as a subordinate of the district Nazim was not supposed to involve himself in such activities.

He greeted the house which passed a confidence vote for Mr Qureshi even in his absence.

Mr Zia said today’s meeting was held to review preparations for the April 27 public meeting of the ARD. “It will show the difference between the meeting held by taking hostage state employees and the one to be participated in by the masses.”

The PPP was also holding a convention of local councils’ representatives on April 20 to make the Minar-i-Pakistan public meeting a success, he said.

Earlier, the PPP meeting condemned the “state torture” of journalists in Faisalabad, saying it depicted that the country was moving towards more dictatorship and that the government would no more tolerate the press freedom.

Those present at the press conference included central information secretary Altaf Qureshi, provincial information secretary Naveed Chaudhry, Lahore chief Mian Misbahur Rahman and women wing president Sajida Mir.