PPP not to attend Sharif's conference

Islamabad: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will not attend a multi-party conference in London in February proposed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML).

Dawn newspaper reported that a decision to the effect was taken at a high-level party meeting in Dubai. The party apparently does not want to enter into any agreement with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), an alliance of religious parties, which has agreed to attend the conference.

However, former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's PPP decided not to make any announcement about its decision after the meeting and instead referred the matter to its Central Executive Committee (CEC), which is expected to meet here in the third week of January.

Those present at the Dubai meeting were PPP Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf, Deputy Secretary-General and Opposition leader in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, Information Secretary Sherry Rehman, Senator Safdar Abbasi and Naheed Khan, Political Secretary to Bhutto.

Sources said the decision was taken as Bhutto had serious reservations about taking part in the conference where the leaders of the MMA would also be present.

There is, however, a possibility that the party might send its representatives to the MPC.

The PPP leaders were also annoyed over the move of Sharif to convene the conference from the PML-N platform without consulting the PPP, despite the fact that the two parties were allies in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD).

The PPP leaders believed that such a conference could have been convened from the platform of the ARD. Sharif was willing to hold an conference in London to formulate a joint strategy by all opposition parties regarding next general elections and for that purpose he was personally contacting all the leaders over the telephone.

Though, the date for the MPC is yet not finalised, but according to the PML-N Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, the conference was expected to be held in the second week of February.

The recent statement by Bhutto that her party was ready to participate in elections under Gen Musharraf had exposed the rift within the ranks of the Opposition parties as the PML-N was reluctant to make any such commitment.