ISLAMABAD There has been a deep resentment in PPP's ranks over the fact that no meeting of the party's Central Executive Committee has been convened by the leadership since the release of the United Nations report last month on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Some senior party members are also critical of the “so-called core committee”, which according to some of them, has become more powerful than the CEC. But PPP's information secretary Fauzia Wahab thinks otherwise and believes that there is no need for convening the CEC meeting to discuss the UN report.
She defended President Asif Zardari's decision to form the “core committee” comprising a number of federal ministers and office-bearers, but agreed that it had no legal or constitutional basis and it was only a consultative body.
Not agreeing with Ms Wahab's assertions, a senior PPP parliamentarian who is also a CEC member told this correspondent that the demand for the UN probe had been originally made by the CEC in a resolution in its first meeting held after Ms Bhutto's assassination in 2007.
Therefore, he said, it was the responsibility of the party leadership to take the CEC into confidence over the findings of the UN commission and to devise its line of action.
The PPP leader said it was on the CEC's demand that the government was forced to move a resolution in the National Assembly and then formally write a letter to the UN requesting it to form an inquiry commission.
Moreover, he said, the CEC in the meeting held on December 31, 2007, in Naudero soon after Ms Bhutto's assassination had called for the UN probe with the aim of exposing the financers, perpetrators, abettors and executors of the assassination plan.
However, he regretted the UN commission was later converted merely into a fact-finding commission.
According to the UN report, he said, “it was agreed with the government of Pakistan that the international commission should be fact-finding in nature and not be a criminal investigation”.
The CEC member said the UN report had categorically stated that “the duty of carrying out a criminal investigation, finding the perpetrators and bringing them to justice, remains with the competent Pakistani authorities”.
He said the UN report had consolidated the party workers' belief that it was the responsibility of their own government to expose the real culprits.
Another PPP parliamentarian questioned the role of the core committee comprising some federal ministers and a few hand-picked people.
He said the party's constitution did not allow formation of any committee without prior approval of the CEC.
For the past almost eight months, President Zardari has been regularly convening meetings of the core committee, comprising eight to 10 members, to discuss important national issues. In a meeting of the core committee held soon after the release of the UN commission report last month Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was directed to initiate action against persons whose names had been mentioned in the commission's report as responsible for inadequate security provided to Ms Bhutto and for hampering the investigation process.
Ms Wahab said the core committee was only a consultative group and it had no other important role.
According to the party constitution, she said, the party leadership was required to convene at least four meetings of the CEC in a year.
She said the last meeting of the CEC was held in Naudero on April 4 on the death anniversary of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The PPP dissidents, however, say the CEC meetings held on the death and birth anniversaries of Bhuttos are ceremonial in nature and are convened only to pay tribute to the late party leaders.
“In fact, no effective CEC meeting has been convened by the party leadership for over four months,” claims one of the members.
