ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party leadership has invited only 32 out of 50 members for attending the recent Central Executive Council (CEC) at Ghari Khuda Buksh leaving out many veterans including ex-PM Gilani which has raised some eyebrows.
Only Malik Hakmeen attended the CEC from Rawalpindi region while former Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was ignored, The Nation learnt.
Sources said that former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Qazi Sultan did not attend the CEC meeting as they were told to hold a meeting at their own in Punjab. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto chaired the meeting along with former President and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on the Shaheed Zulifqar Ali Bhutto death anniversary.
Talking to The Nation, former Prime Minster Syed Raza Gilani confirmed that PPP CEC had passed a resolution against the kidnapping of his son Syed Ali Haider Gilani and slain Governor Salman Taseer’s son Shahbaz Taseer.
PPP leader Qazi Sultan when approached said that he was senior member of CEC and he was invited to attend the meeting but he was not able to travel to Larkana due to the deteriorating health. He said the party leadership had tasked him to arrange the seminar on Bhutto’s death anniversary on local level.
Well-placed sources in PPP revealed that PPP top leadership instructed the local leadership of PPP to hold functions of ZAB’s anniversary on regional level and only senior member Malik Hakmeen was invited to attend the CEC meeting. Malik Hakmeen is a senior member of CEC but PPP leadership ignored him during its government and did not give him any responsibility or task at any level.
Another leader of PPP and advisor to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Fawad Chaudhry said the party leadership invited Raja Pervaiz Ashraf but he could not attend the meeting due to poor health. He said Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is a senior leader of PPP and the party cannot ignore his role for strengthening the democracy. He stated that Bilawal Bhutto decided in the meeting to start visiting different areas of Punjab. Former PM is playing active role for reorganizing the party along with PPP Punjab president Mian Mazoor Watto in Punjab.
According to media reports, Zardari put the questions over the performance of his two Premiers including Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Seyd Yousuf Raza Gilani and also blamed that PPP could not perform in the Punjab in general election on May 11, 2013, due to the bad governance in last PPP’s five-year tenure. Asif Zardari said Gilani was the only PM from Multan region and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf only focused on his city Gujar Khan instead of the whole country.