ISLAMABAD Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar offered to resign when the ruling Pakistan People's Party was struggling to ride over rough patches last week.

In what appeared to be a damage control measure, President Asif Ali Zardari prevailed upon Babar not to join the club of Sherry Rehman and Mian Raza Rabbani who had resigned from the cabinet for different reasons.

Sources told Dawn that Babar, who is also the party's spokesman, got emotional during a meeting of PPP elders, jointly chaired by the co-chairperson and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday.

The party's newly appointed information secretary, Fauzia Wahab, confirmed that Babar had offered his resignation and demanded that others, who he believed were responsible for the current situation, should do the same.

According to sources, Babar conceded that the media management during the whole crisis left much to be desired.

When approached, the PPP spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the report. 'It was our internal meeting. We had already issued a press release soon after the meeting,' he said.

The events which unfolded in the wake of disqualification of the Sharif brothers, imposition of governor's rule in Punjab and unexpected restoration of the deposed judges had created a serious division in the ranks of the ruling Pakistan People's Party.

At the meeting, several central leaders are reported to have held their colleagues at the provincial level responsible for the state of affairs.

Earlier described as a meeting of the Central Executive Committee, it was converted into 'a meeting of senior PPP leaders.' In any case it was an important gathering since the party leaders were meeting for the first time after the announcement of restoration of the deposed judges.

Sources said Babar wanted to speak and after getting permission from the president he delivered a hard-hitting speech.

He admitted that the PPP central leadership in general and the provincial leadership in particular had committed serious mistakes by letting the water rise to the danger level.

'We should take some corrective measures. We must fix responsibility. And we must make sure this should never happen again,' sources quoted him as saying.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, President Zardari and PM Gilani advised him to calm down since the party and the government needed people like him.

The meeting reportedly decided to make an objective assessment of the situation.

Other participants, including Raza Rabbani, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Farook Naek also spoke against the party's provincial leadership. They demanded immediate lifting of the governor's rule and also advised President Zardari to start looking for Governor Salman Taseer's replacement.

Punjab PPP leader Qasim Zia did not regard the harsh comments as 'positive criticism'. He asserted that the central leaders who were criticising him had little idea of the political situation in Punjab.

The sources said that when Zia and some central leaders were exchanging harsh remarks, President Zardari remained quite for some time. 'He probably wanted them to give vent to their anger, or possibly wanted them to have a bash at each other,' the sources observed. But Information Secretary Fauzia Wahab denied that any war of words had taken place at the meeting. She said that the central leaders and the provincial leadership had expressed their viewpoints.

'Everyone spoke frankly and gave suggestions. The meeting was very positive. We discussed our future strategy for Punjab, in particular,' she said.

She replied in the negative when asked if the meeting held any particular person or group responsible for the political crisis in Punjab. But she did concede that a majority of the participants demanded immediate lifting of governor's rule.