GUJRAT: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has conducted interviews of members of party`s central Punjab organising committees to consult them for a suitable name to elevate as the next president and general secretary of the area, where the party has been facing a consistent decline for the past few years.

Organising committees of Punjab, including Central and South Punjab chapters, as well asBalochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have chalked out propo sals after a hectic exercise of reaching at the grassroots level for party reorganisation. The Punjab and Balochistan chapters have already submitted the proposals to the party chairman.

Nadeem Asghar Kaira, a member of the central Punjab committee, which was being headed by former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf with Nadeem Afzal Chan, Chaudhry Manzoor Hussain and Rana Farooq Saeed as its members, told Dawn that the chairman had held separate meetings with the respective organising committees to have their opinion on the matter of appointing president and general secretary of both chapters in Punjab.

He said it was one-on-one meet-ing of every member with Bilawal as even no secretary or other personal staff of the chairman was allowed to be present there.

Asked if there is a bar on any member of the organising committee to become a president or general secretary at the provincial level, Mr Kaira said no such restriction would apply to any member as it was the prerogative of the chairman to choose anyone keeping in view the previous performance, commitment with the party and potential of a member to appoint office-bearers.

He said the central Punjab committee had visited 25 districts, held marathon discussions with workers and found them enthusiastic about reviving the party. He said the south Punjab committeeheaded by the former governor Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood had visited 11 districts.

To another question, Nadeem Kaira, the first cousin of party`s central information secretary and former federal minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, said during the meetings whoever wished to serve as the district president or general secretary his name had been included in the list which was presented to the chairman.

However, some local party sources in the region told this correspondent that the committee had only presented the names of selected people `as per the whims and wishes of former lawmakers and ticket holders` to fill the slots at district level and termed the reorganisation move an exercisein futility.

Mr. Kaira, who was elected as Kharian Tehsil Nazim twice (2001 and 2005), belongs to Lalamusa, the only town in Punjab where PPP had obtained a majority in the Municipal Committee elections held in October last year and he also won as a councillor from a ward of the city.

Mr Kaira is also said to be the aspirant for the senior slot of party chapter in Punjab, however he dispelled the impression and said that it was up to the chairman to make the choice.

He said Chairman Bilawal would also interview the districtwise candidates for the party slots after Oct 18 and the formal announcement is likely to be made in November.