PPP hopes to break all records at Oct 18 jalsa

Bilawal's political career to be ‘launched’ on the day of Benazir’s return to Karachi.

KARACHI:

In yet another attempt to launch the political career of their party's co-chairperson, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) announced that they would break all records at the October 18 rally.

The jalsa is being held on the seventh anniversary of the day former prime minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan and a bomb blast on her caravan near Karsaz left more than 200 people dead. This jalsa, according to Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, will officially kick off Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's political career.

Shah said that Benazir Bhutto's son was starting his career roughly around the same time as his mother. "She was fighting Ziaul Haq, the military dictator, when she was almost as old as him," he said, speaking at a press conference after presiding over the PPP's Sindh council meeting on Tuesday. "Bilawal has now reached the age where he has to take over the party and continue his grandfather and mother's mission."

According to Shah, there had been serious threats to Bilawal's life since he decided to step up and participate in the country's political arena. Shah, who is also the president of the PPP's chapter in Sindh, said that even though more than 200 lives were lost on October 18, 2007, party workers had vowed to form a human chain around their leader to protect him. "We don't want to indulge in a number game," he said. "I can assure you that this public gathering at the Quaid-e-Azam's mazaar will break all records."

In response to a question about the progress on the Karsaz case, the chief minister did not give any satisfactory answers and started talking about how an FIR was registered against the wishes of the PPP and the police did not want to cooperate with them.

Inside the meeting

The PPP Sindh council meeting, which was chaired by CM Qaim Ali Shah, turned into heated argument between PPP leaders where many local leaders started demanding the chief minister and his cabinet members to apologise for mistakes committed in the past. "If our chairperson can tender an apology then why can't you do the same," said a few members of the council. Party sources said that some senior leaders had to intervene and calm everyone down.

Before the meeting, Sindh Education Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro had expressed grief over Bilawal's apology. "We don't want to see the Benazir Bhutto's son and our young leader in this state of torment over the government and party's performance."

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2014.