ISLAMABAD May 15: Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said that President Pervez Musharraf has been forced to intervene to resolve political issues faced by the Pakistan Muslim League because the party failed to deliver during its four-year rule. He said that he would be attending a meeting of the party leadership called by the president on Monday.

Talking to newsmen at a dinner hosted by a party leader here on Sunday, Mr Jamali said: “We should not involve the president in party affairs because he has to perform his executive duties.”

Responding to a question about his statement casting doubts about the assemblies completing their term, Mr Jamali said it was a coincidence that all the four previous assemblies in which he sat as a member were dissolved, but he prayed that the present assemblies would complete their term.

He said he would like to ask the party leadership what had it delivered and what political benefit it had provided to Gen Musharraf.

He said had the party delivered and come out of the drawing room, there would have been no need for the president to get involved in petty matters and defuse party differences.

The former prime minister said that parties could not be run through computer as the computer returned the input it had been fed and would add nothing to it. Active politics required struggle in the field, he added.

He said politicians must not compromise on principles nor should they use party platform for personal or family benefits because such an attitude had damaged the party in the past.

Every leader in the party, he said, must be consulted before decisions were taken; the party should not be run by one or a few individuals.

When asked to comment on the government allowing duty-free import of certain vegetables and livestock from the neighbouring country, he said “such a step is taken when the decision makers have no loyalty with the country and no sympathy with their own growers”.

He said that instead of taking such a drastic step the government should have enhanced incentives and facilities for farmers to grow more.

He also expressed dismay over the government’s silence on the stock exchange crisis in which billions of rupees were sunk and an inquiry was required.