Party meeting: Bilawal promises policy for farmers, labourers and students

Says he will soon start a tour to meet PPP workers across the province

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will soon announce its policies for farmers, labourers and students, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Monday.

He was speaking to party workers from Lodhran and Vehari at Bilawal House.

Bilawal said the PPP would continue to work for the rights of farmers and labourers. He urged the jiyalas (PPP workers) to not lose hope and said that he would soon tour the province to meet PPP workers and listen to their proposals for the party.

Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, PPP south Punjab president Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood and PPP leaders Shaukat Basra and Abdul Qadir Shaheed were also present at the occasion.

Separately, PPP central Punjab president Manzoor Wattoo urged the provincial bureaucracy to uphold transparency in the administration of the upcoming local government elections. He said the bureaucracy was answerable to the people.

He urged officials to reject any directives from the ruling party to rig the election.

Wattoo said the provincial government had started pre-poll rigging by releasing Rs20 million each to its candidates to fund development schemes in their constituencies.

He said under the Election Commission of Pakistan rules no development scheme could be started in a constituency after the announcement of election schedule. He said the ECP should take notice of the irregularity and declare anyone funding schemes ineligible to contest local government elections. He said government officials who approved such schemes and worked on these should be proceeded against under the Civil Servants Act.

He said the PPP workers had been asked to make videos at the site of such schemes and send them as evidence of rigging to the party headquarters and the ECP.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2015.