Clandestine congregation: PPP in ‘hush-hush’ meeting over strategies

Military sources term it an attempt to divert attention from the Memogate debacle.

ISLAMABAD:

The top leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has decided to confront challenges facing incumbent regime upfront.

Following his fiery speeches first at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) and then at the National Assembly, the country’s prime minister held a detailed meeting and discussed the party’s strategy to deal with the current political situation.

The official confirmation of this meeting, however, remained to a paltry one-line statement saying: “The current situation was discussed during the meeting”.

Besides this meeting a number of consultative meetings took place, both at the Presidency and Prime Minister’s House, but the government once again opted to keep mum and media offices of both houses tried to evade confirming it.

Ensuring confidentiality, President Asif Ali Zardari met with key PPP leaders at his residency instead of office located at the Presidential House.

While the Supreme Court was conducting hearing of the Memogate case, government’s main legal guru Babar Awan was with the president, sources revealed. To an extent that at one point during the court proceedings, the attorney general was summoned at the Presidency to appraise the situation, while the proceedings were underway.

“It will also be a war of nerves. The top leadership is of the view that if we bowed down, the game will be over,” a senior PPP leader said, adding that his party has no option but to stand firm otherwise it will not be able to survive.

Commenting on Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s hard-hitting speeches, the PPP leader claimed that there was no other way since the party had been “pushed to the wall”. But for some young PPP MNAs, the outburst was nothing less than surprising.

“I don’t know why the elders have done so. Why they took this step… may be they (top leadership) are aware of the dangers that we are not privy to,” a legislator from the federal areas remarked.

Military quarters termed it an attempt to divert attention from the Memogate scam on which the military establishment appears fully ready to take it to a ‘logical end’.

“We are bound to act on directions of the court. The replies were filed on court’s order,” a military official said.

When asked about Thursday’s speeches by the prime minister, the official – who was not allowed to speak on record – said in a sarcastic tone: “What can I say. I don’t know why they want to portray themselves as political martyrs”.

Meanwhile, Minister for Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan when contacted said the prime minister’s address was not only party policy but “complete reflection of the people of Pakistan.”

She said anti-democratic forces do not like the smooth functioning of democracy in the country but she did not elaborate who these forces were.

Senate elections

While the capital city remained in the grip of speculations, the PPP invited applications for the Senate elections due in March next year.

Party Secretary General Jahangir Bader asked party hopefuls to apply in writing for the awarding of tickets by January 10, 2012.

Applications accompanied with a bank draft for Rs30,000 should reach the party’s central secretariat in Islamabad by the due date, he said in a statement.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2011.