ISLAMABAD - After losing the membership of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, former federal minister Babar Awan was further de-crowned as Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) vice-president   the slot many in party considered not existing.
Though there was no official word but clearly Babar Awan, the once-blue-eyed boy of President Asif Ali Zardari   famous for his benevolence toward his friends  , is under the cloud since he refused to appear as witness in the contempt of court case against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in the Supreme Court.
The reports about this new loss to the former federal minister for law and parliamentary affairs appeared in some private TV channels soon after his replacement by Qamar Zaman Kaira as member of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security who participated in Saturday’s session of the committee to redraft the recommendations for foreign policy revisit.
Despite repeated efforts Kaira, who is also PPP central information secretary, could not be approached for his comment on Awan’s removal from the slot of vice-president. Some party sources said there was no such slot either in Pakistan People's Party (PPP) or Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians, which was instituted under the head of Makhdoom Amin Faheem in Gen Musharraf's era for the purpose of contesting elections.
They said that in the heydays Babar Awan managed to notify himself as PPPP vice-president and since he was close to President Zardari, who is all-in-all in the party, nobody dared to point out to him that there was no provision in the party constitution for this slot.
In those days Awan was at his zenith and he stepped down as federal minister for law and parliamentary affairs to plead Zulfikar Ali Bhutto murder case reference. Despite his resignation, he was calling the shots in the ministry and incumbent Law and Justice Molla Bux Chandio had complained against him to prime minister but to no avail.
In the meanwhile he also managed to get his younger brother appointed as Adviser to Prime Minister on Law and Justice while he also handpicked ministry secretary Masood Chishti.
Both his brother and Chishti were the first casualties when he lost trust of the party leadership after refusing to come out as witness in the contempt of court case against the prime minister. The secretary of his choice also showed the back when asked to come to the rescue of Premier Gilani in the contempt case.
A party leader said that, without getting into the controversy whether the slot of vice-president in PPPP existed or not and whether he was sacked from the controversial slot or not, the point is that Dr Babar Awan has shattered the trust of his mentor. “He was everything in the party with Zardari's support and without his cover he is nothing in the party,” he added.
Earlier, the same day Babar Awan suffered another unexpected but serious blow when the PPP-led government removed him from PCNS and appointed former information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira in his place. When the meeting of the parliamentary committee began on Saturday, Kaira requested for attending the meeting in place of Awan informing the committee that the government has appointed him as committee member.