ISLAMABAD July 29: Pakistan Muslim League-QA is preparing for holding intra party elections so that it could fulfil the criteria, set by the military government, to participate in the general polls.

So far, nomination papers for the office of party president have been filed by Mian Azhar alone but Ijazul Haq has announced that he would challenge him.

In yet another move, Gohar Ayub Khan, the sitting secretary general, has withdrew his candidature and in his place Zafarullah Jamali has filed his nomination papers. It is believed that Ijazul Haq is trying to pitch someone of his choice against Mr Jamali.

Ijazul Haq said, “I want to strengthen true democracy in the party by putting my candidature against the party president, which should not be taken in the negative sense”.

Apart from president and secretary-general, almost all the sitting office-bearers, including Lt-Gen Majeed Malik, Sikandar Hayat Malhi, Kabir Ali Wasti, Shujaat Ali Khan and Begum Yaqoot Jamilur Rahman, have filed their papers for the offices of senior and vice presidents.

Elections to the provincial party office-bearers have almost completed and the sitting ones have retained their offices even in the secret ballot.

A party source, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that the pro-establishment elements were not happy with the performance of Mian Azhar and had given a positive nod for accepting Ijazul Haq as his replacement.”He has failed to deliver in the eyes of military political strategists” claimed the source.

An interesting aspect of the intra party polls is that the general council of about 750 members taking part in August 2 elections would come as result of fresh members elected within this week. The party’s joint secretary (information), Azeem Chaudhri, said it would be quite different a general council from that of 1996, which had elected Mian Azhar as party president.

He said, the list of 110 general council members elected in NWFP had been received and its copy delivered to Ijazul Haq on his request.