LAHORE - PPP Secretary General Sardar Latif Khan Khosa yesterday said that ‘gang of four’ saga was not a serious move to sideline the PPP-P chief Asif Ali Zardari.
“A mere difference of opinion expressed by some party men on certain issue should not be equated with rebellion against the leadership,” he said while talking to The Nation.
Khosa said it was a normal practice in the political parties that party men form groups and do lobbying to get better positions. “It is, in fact, a sign of a vibrant political party where different groups are competing to reach the higher echelons,” he remarked.
Though he confirmed the existence of a group within the party aspiring to have the slot of the PPP-P president, but at the same time, he also said that there was nothing wrong in it. “We are a democratic party and difference of opinion on issues is accepted as democratic right of all party men”, he affirmed.
Khosa, also a former Punjab governor, was of the view that groupings in political parties should be regarded as a healthy sign. He revealed that slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto would encourage groupings in the party as a positive activity. “I get very constructive feedback on party matters from different groups and it helps me a lot to run the party affairs in a better way,” he quoted BB as having said on different occasions.
Earlier, sources in the PPP had dropped hints about four senior party leaders, three from Punjab and one from Sindh, who were conspiring against Asif Zardari. They wanted him to take a back seat leaving the party matters to his son, Bilawal who should be the party face in future.
The tirade against these leaders came when they opposed a resolution moved in the last CEC meeting in favour of the party co-chairman. They were labeled as ‘Gang of four’, ‘Trojan horses’ and ‘Porus elephants’ without revealing their actual names. References to a ‘Gang of four’ which challenged the leadership of Benazir Bhutto in the past were also made.
The disgruntled group from Punjab was not invited to ZA Bhutto’s 88th birthday celebrations held at Bilawal House Lahore last week.
The debate started when Bilawal Bhutto’s senior adviser Bashir Riaz in his article published in an Urdu daily last week pointed out that a group within the PPP was working against Asif Ali Zardari on behest of certain forces which he did not name. But it was an obvious reference to the military establishment. He called these leaders ‘Porus elephants’, a historical reference to elephants of King of Pauravas.
On Friday, Bashir Riaz wrote yet another article, this time in an English daily, pointing out the existence of an anti-Zardari group in the party. This time around, he called them ‘Trojan horses’ trying to weaken the party through their opposition to the PPP-P chief.