LAHORE, March 31: The PPP believes that general elections will be held during the current year and Ms Benazir Bhutto will come back to Pakistan before the polls. Information Secretary Naveed Chaudhry said at a news conference after a meeting of the party’s provincial executive committee that the former prime minister’s return would boost the morale of the leaders and workers even if she was arrested on her arrival.

He said the party had started preparing itself for the elections. District organisations had been asked to prepare lists of the prospective candidates for the National and the Punjab assemblies by the end of April. The meeting, presided over by Qasim Zia, also decided to hold People’s Youth convention in Multan on April 16. The same day a workers’ convention would be held in Kamalia, which would be addressed by Jehangir Badr, Khalid Kharal, Raja Riaz and Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar.

A women’s convention would be held in Faisalabad on April 29. Naveed Chaudhry alleged that the government was projecting the seizure of Mr Asif Zardari’s accounts to cover up what he called the failures of the NAB during the past six years. He said such pressure tactics would not work.

He called upon the Election Commission to take notice of the situation. Criticising the NAB for its failure to take up allegations against various ministries, the PPP leader said in fact the Bureau had singled out the opposition parties.