Pakistan People's Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has directed PPP Punjab President Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi to propose candidates for the forthcoming general elections after consulting the party's district & city presidents and executive council members.
The Party has decided in principle to ensure tickets to the sitting MNAs and MPAs, who did not betray the party and served for the cause of the party whole heartedly. Sources in the PPPP said that in the first phase, a meeting of all divisional office-bearers, MNAs, MPAs and former ticket holders would be held to agree upon party candidates for the election in which three candidates would be nominated for each seat.
The chairperson with the consultation of senior party executive members would announce the final name of the candidates. Benazir Bhutto had also directed PPP Vice Chairman Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani to select the potential candidates for National and Provincial assemblies from NWFP.
The sources said that to counter the present regime's tactics, the party had decided to award party tickets to winning stalwarts along with two other popular and influential party loyalists as covering candidates for MNA and MPA seats.
A senior member of the PPPP on condition of anonymity told Business Recorder that PPPP had also convinced the PML-N leadership not to give a free hand to rival candidates in the election and instead field their own candidates to give a tough time to rivals.
The sources said that stalwarts and senior members of the party had also urged the party's chairperson to return and personally run the campaign of party candidates. The senior PPPP leader said that in case President Pervez Musharraf was elected from present assemblies, the PPP would not boycott the elections.
In 1985, the PPP had made a mistake by staying away from the polls during the tenure of General Ziaul Haq and this time the party had decided not to give a free hand to rival parties candidates in the upcoming elections.
There would be tough contest between Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and Federal Minister Alhaj Sikandar Hayat Bosan in NA-152 Multan. While neither Shah Mehmood Qureshi nor Makhdoom Javed Hashmi of PML-N were ready to surrender from Makhdoom Rashid seat, the sources said.
They said the opposition parties were facing hardships in Shujabad and Jalalpur Pirwala to select potential candidates because all the amateur contestants had joined the official Muslim League.
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