Senior party leader bemoans lack of 'democracy' within Zardari's PPP

Lahore, July 1 : A senior PPP leader has said that it was high time to voice differences within the party, as, in his words, voicing different opinions "did not mean challenging the party's leadership".

He said until 2007, the PPP was synonymous with the Bhutto legacy, and that the party and its hardcore workers remained together because of the charismatic personalities of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto.

Senator Safdar Abbasi said that the PPP should not have signed the Murree Declaration if the sacked judges were to be restored thorough an 18th amendment. Abbasi, a senior PPP leader who has had a 40-year-old association with the party, is the one who had first proposed the name of Makhdoom Amin Fahim for the post prime-minister.

"My first choice for the premiership was [PPP leader] Makhdoom Amin Fahim and I also suggested the name of [now Foreign Minister] Shah Mehmood Qureshi because of my 40-year association and their charismatic personalities. There is no forward bloc in the PPP," the Daily Times quoted him as saying.

He added: "Voicing alternate opinions does not mean challenging the leadership of PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari but where we feel that party policies are not in line with public sentiments, we, as members of the party and central executive committee (CEC), should voice them. We accept that it was the will of [slain PPP chairwoman] Benazir Bhutto that Zardari should become chairman but he opted to become the co-chairman instead, which the CEC endorsed."

ANI