Reorganisation: Bilawal in Lahore to ‘revamp’ PPP

PPP chairman arrives in City on a week-long visit

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari arrived in Lahore for a week-long visit on Saturday. He is accompanied by his sister Bakhtawar Zardari.

“The chairman will meet PPP delegates from south Punjab from September 7 to 9,” central Punjab president Manzoor Wattoo told the media in front of Bilawal House. He said Bilawal would hold meetings with the members of PPP Central and Provincial Executive Councils and discuss ways to revamp the party in the province.

Bilawal will also meet representatives of the PPP’s Kissan Wing to formulate a Kissan Policy.

Wattoo said that on September 11, Bilawal would meet party delegates from Sahiwal, Sheikhupura, the Gujranwala district and the Gujranwala city. The chairman would also meet delegates from Lahore, Wattoo said.

Members of Central and Executive Councils of central Punjab will meet him at a dinner to be hosted at Bilawal House.

Wattoo said members of the Election Commission should resign as demanded by the PPP, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid. “If they don’t resign, it will entail the apprehension of local government election becoming controversial,” Wattoo said.

He said the chairman would address public meetings once the security situation improved. Commenting on the arrest of PPP leader Qasim Zia, he said it was political victimisation. “This will not be good for the country and for democracy,” he said.

“Bilawal will meet party workers and leaders but might not move around much [for security reasons]. He will hold most of the meetings at Bilawal House,” general secretary Tanvir Ashraf Kaira said.

PPP central Punjab president Manzoor Wattoo and south Punjab president Makhdoom Ahmad Mehmood had welcomed the chairman in Lahore.

“Bilawal is likely to devise a strategy for the upcoming local government elections. Divisional presidents might be asked to give their input on wooing voters,” a PPP member said.

Former governor Makhdoom Ahmad Mahmood said Bilawal had been taking forward the vision of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. “He has been holding meetings with workers and listening to their problems,” he said. Mahmood said the government was not working for farmers’ welfare.

Commenting on the arrest of Qasim Zia and Dr Asim Hussain, he said it seemed that the government was only interested in the accountability of PPP leaders. “Zia has not been involved in any corruption.

He is being politically victimised. The accountability process should be across the board.”

Separately, PPP Multan division president Shagufta Chaudhry has been appointed the party’s south Punjab finance secretary.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2015.