Security concerns: Bilawal postpones Punjab trip till end of April

PPP leader keen to induct younger recruits to the party.

ISLAMABAD:

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s visit to Punjab has been rescheduled once more for the end of this month or early next month. The party hopes the visit will ‘re-organise and re-activate’ the PPP within Punjab, where it was bowled out during the general elections last year. The schedule for the PPP patron-in-chief’s visit was discussed last week by the party’s central committee on the death anniversary of party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

It is expected that the young PPP leader will remain confined within the walls of Bilawal House for much of his stay in Lahore when it takes place. “Bilawal will hold meetings with district organizations during his stay in Lahore and all meetings have been planned at Bilawal House under strict security,” a PPP leader said. Sources within the party have cited security concerns as the primary reason for keeping Bilawal out of the political spotlight. Spokesperson for former President Asif Zardari said, “The party’s provincial president Manzoor Wattoo is looking after the arrangements for the trip and no dates have been finalised yet. Bilawal is expected to be in Lahore at the end of this month.” Babar said the visit was postponed due to security concerns.



Party insiders say the central committee agreed to give 25-year-old Bilawal an active role in organizational matters. Former president Asif Ali Zardari will, however, continue to call the shots on policy matters and the party’s relationship with other political forces, sources said.

Sources close to Bilawal say he is keen to induct fresh recruits to the party during the proposed ‘re-organisation’ of the PPP; however, they add that he has been advised to retain a mixture of experienced and new members within all ranks of the party.

“Bilawal wants to hold meetings with students from different universities and colleges in order to discuss his anti-extremist stance,” said a former leader of the PPP’s student wing, the PSF. “He wants to take young people on board who would be willing to propagate this ideology through social and conventional media platforms.”

Senior PPP leader Naveed Chaudhry told The Express Tribune that the party has no plans to indulge in ‘politics of confrontation’ and would continue its policy of ‘reconciliation’ to strengthen democracy in the country. “We will judge the government on an issue-to-issue basis,” Chaudhry said, reflecting on the party’s current tone and citing the example of the PPP’s protest against the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance in the National Assembly and the party’s planned opposition to the bill in the Senate. “There will be no compromise on issues related to the betterment of the people,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2014.