MULTAN, Dec 13: The incarcerated PPP leader, Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, might consider to contest byelection if the party awards him ticket for NA-187 vacated by Aitzaz Ahsan.

While talking to Dawn from the premises of an accountability court of Rawalpindi by his cell phone on Thursday, Mr Gillani said delegations of party workers and other people had motivated him to contest bypolls from the prison.

He, however, said his candidature for byelection was subject to approval by the party high command. “I can vie for a place in the assembly if the party announces my candidature,” he said. However, he had doubts that the regime would not allow him to contest the election.

He said: “A convicted politician from Toba Tek Singh has been elected MNA, while a convicted lady has been given the slot of adviser in the federal cabinet. But in my case, the regime will take the excuse of my conviction to refrain me from contesting the polls.”

He said party chairperson Benazir Bhutto had not so far informed him about the fate of the resignation he tendered as party vice-chairman after the defection of his nephew, MNA Asad Murtaza Gillani, to P-5. He said he had seen a statement of Raza Rabbani that the BB wanted him to review his decision to resign from the party offices taking responsibility of the ticket allocation to the younger Gillani.

He dispelled the impression that the BB made all the choices herself to award party tickets, saying the internal lobbies in a party played a decisive role in the allocation of tickets, and it would not be fair to hold one leader responsible for wrong decisions. He said for instance Asad Gillani was his choice.

He said time had come that in future the parties should award tickets only to committed and loyal workers. He disagreed that the emergence of a forward bloc in PPP was, in fact, a show of no-confidence in the party leadership and its policies. Not principles but personal gain is the captivating factor leading some of the PPP MNAs to the forward bloc.

He said: “Undoubtedly, military rulers have always left no stone unturned to corrupt the politics, but the present regime has attained new heights of Machiavellianism in cobbling a government of its own choice.”

He said during the Zia era in 1983, both he and Fakhar Imam were vying for the chairmanship of Multan district council and latter lost the battle despite being an important figure in the late dictator’s government. Like the present regime, they could also manipulate victory for their man, but after all they had some principles.

Besides other factors, Gillani attributed the growing number of defectors to the absence of party chairperson and incarceration of a number of central leaders, including him. He claimed had he not been in the prison, the situation in Punjab especially in the Seraiki belt would not be as worse as it was now.