KARACHI, 31 August — The Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto has summoned an important meeting of aides like Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Syed Khursheed Shah to draw a strategy about elections which the military government in Pakistan has promised for next year in October.
Fahim, party’s acting chairman in Benazir’s absence from the country, came out with a detailed statement, meanwhile, to deny reports, appearing in the Pakistani press after regular intervals that he and his colleagues had been asked by the military to join the government.
“ All these reports are unfounded. The government has not made any offer to us. We neither sought concessions from the military, nor any concession been given,” he said rebutting reports that he was about to take over charge as caretaker prime minister, following his meeting with President Musharraf last Saturday.
“We have merely asked for justice and fair elections which the regime has promised,” Fahim clarified. Speculations, stemming from the meeting in Islamabad, had been rebutted by the party, but this was from Fahim himself. He made it clear that the PPP wanted justice and fair play, and if “cornered, it will resist all such attempts with all its force.”
Also yesterday, the PPP expressed concern at the shutting of National Development Finance Corporation branches and the collapse of Army Welfare Trust, and demanded probe into both the scams. A party spokesman said in a statement here yesterday that “the collapse of the National Development Finance Corporation a la finance companies and cooperative societies, the imminent sinking of the Army Welfare Trust and the writing off of loans of politicians aligned with the government are matters of deep concern for the PPP and the people of Pakistan.”
In an earlier development, the Sindh and the Punjab councils of the PPP have shown complete confidence in the leadership of Benazir and have foiled attempts to dislodge her from a position which she has held since almost 12 years.
