LAHORE - In the days to come, senior PPP leader and noted lawyer, Ch Aitzaz Ahsan is all set to play an important role in party affairs, especially in Punjab where the PPP was routed by the rival PML-N in the last elections.
Party sources have confided to The Nation that PPP leadership was planning to overhaul the Punjab organisation for which Mr Aitzaz Ahsan has been assigned a key role to formulate recommendations to galvanise the party. “Following dismal performance of the PPP in the last elections, the leadership has decided to make radical changes in party’ organisation,” said a party source privy to the deliberations going on in the highest echelons about organising the party on sound footings.
Currently, Aitzaz is in the process of compiling a comprehensive report on party’s failures in the May 11 elections. He has written letters to all the party candidates asking them to pinpoint causes of their defeat in the elections. He would then analyse all the reports and make recommendations to the top leadership to set the things right.
Sources said that Aitzaz has also been authorised to suggest changes in the party structure. Presently, two separate organisations, one for central Punjab and another for south Punjab are in place under the command of Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo and Makhdum Shahabuddin respectively. These were created a year before the elections in the anticipation that people in the southern region would vote for the PPP in the hope that it would create a separate province for them after victory in the elections. But this did not happen and the PPP candidates faced humiliating defeat at the hands of rival candidates.
Under the new scheme of things, this arrangement is less likely to continue, said the sources, adding that Punjab organisation is likely to be put under a single command.
There are also plans that PPP would be organised and run on the pattern of Chinese Communist Party and new blood would be infused to make it a vibrant organisation. Some existing party ‘stalwarts’ are likely to lose their jobs under the new arrangement. For this, Aitzaz Ahsan has already started contacting the educated and committed party men who would be assigned important political roles under a new command, sources disclosed.