RAWALPINDI: Pakistan People`s Party (PPP) will start selecting its district and city presidents in Punjab from Tuesday.

In this regard, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will meet the candidates from the Rawalpindi division in Lahore.

Eight months after the dissolution of the party organisations in the province, the PPP is all set to nominate the office-bearers in citles and districts before its foundation day on November 30.

The PPP chairman dissolved the party organisations in four provinces on April 13and appointed a five-member committee to reorganise the party in Punjab and Sindh.

In Punjab, the committee comprised of Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Chaudhry Farooq, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Nadeem Asghar Kaira and Chaudhry Manzoor.

After the appointment of Qamar Zaman Kaira and Nadeem Afzal Chan as the provincial president and general secretary respectively, the committee handed over the names of the city and district presidents to the chairman.

Three candidates -Kamran Aslam, Jabbar Sattiand Chaudhry Zaheer-are underconsideration for the post of Rawalpindi district president. Similarly, Babar Jadoon, Chaudhry Asad and Chaudhry Iftikhar are candidates for the city president slot.

`The final decision will be taken by the party chairman. The chairman can select one from the list of candidates or present a name on his own,` a senior party leader told Dawn.

He said the candidates for the Rawalpindicity and district organisations were not popular among the workers. The workers want such persons who can revive the party in the city and the district,he added.

He alleged that some of the candidates were involved in land grabbing and would bring a bad name to the party if they were selected.

`The workers never criticised decisions taken by slain party chairperson Benazir Bhutto as she always nominated those who were popular among the workers. She also picked those workers for the top slots who worked for the party,` he added.

However, he said things had changed now as the party brought Nawaz Khokhar to the front for the provincial organisation which raised eyebrows within the party.

Interestingly, the party decided not to appoint any person again who had held an office before April 13, 2016, in a bid to bring forth afreshleadership.

PPP local leader Shujaat Haider Naqvi told Dawn that time had come the partyestablished think-tanks in all the cities to improve the local organisations while including old workers who could not participate in the elections in a committee to coordinate between the workers and the office-bearers.

`The committee should be tasked with identifying names of potential workers for party organisations and pick candidates for the elections. After getting the names, the party will award tickets to such candidates for elections so that they can work in their areas,` he said.

When contacted, former president of the PPP R awalpindi chapter, Amir Fida Paracha, said the party would finalise the names of the city and district presidents before its foundation day.

He said he was not a candidate for the city president but the decision of the party chairman would be accepted. He said the PPP chairman wanted to revive the party and there was a need to nominate a suitable candidate who would lead the workers and supporters at the local level.