LAHORE, Oct 31: The PPP has started preparations for general elections, hoping that President Musharraf will honour his word and give the electorate a chance to choose their representatives in October next year.

Workers’ conventions are being held at various places and evaluation of various constituencies is going on.

The general elections will be a serious challenge for the party as it has to regain many lost grounds from its arch rival PML-N which had swept the 1997 elections, though through foul methods, as a number of parties allege.

The PPP had improved its performance in the recent local elections, partly because of the strategy it adopted in forming alliance with the PML-N and the Jamaat-i-Islami, and partly because of the popular support it had gained in the past few years.

The party is now thinking of a methodology to strengthen its position further in the general elections.

Party’s acting secretary-general Reza Rabbani is holding meetings with provincial leaders to have an assessment of the situation and exchange views on what the party should do to outmatch its rivals.

The PPP is yet to decide —- and the same is the case with other parties —- as to which party should be its ally or rival in the next elections.

Some PML leaders think that various factions of the PML would stand a chance in the next elections only if they get united before the polls. Otherwise, they think, the PPP will defeat them all.

Leaders subscribing to this argument are making behind-the-scene efforts to bring all PML factions on one platform, although the task is very, very difficult if not impossible.

The PPP, on the other hand, wants the PML to stay fragmented as such a situation will serve its interest better. The party might still be a gainer if the PML-N stays with it in the elections with the PML-QA headed by Mian Muhammad Azhar in the opposite camp.

As things stand, the PML faction headed by Mr Hamid Nasir Chattha is expected to be an ally of the PPP in the next elections if the PML factions fail to shun their differences and unite. He is said to be in constant contact with the PPP chairperson and also enjoys her confidence.

To strengthen its position, the PPP is trying to break the nexus between the religious parties and the military government. Various strategies are being considered to achieve the target. Political analysts say that one of the reasons why the PPP is supporting the military government’s policy on Afghanistan is to keep religious parties at a distance from the rulers. And the more the distance between the religious parties and the government, the more benefit the PPP can expect in the next elections.

Although, PPP’s pro-government policy has created difficulties for the ARD, of which it is one of the major components, the PPP does not plan to change its stand only for the sake of the unity of the alliance.