A time to reflect: PPP pays tributes to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Workers celebrate party founder’s 88th birth anniversary

PESHAWAR: Former president and Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari was urged to stop running the party from abroad and hold intra-party elections to give the party workers an opportunity to elect their true representative. Syed Ayub Shah, former MPA and a senior party leader, said this at the 88th birth anniversary of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former president of the country. Hundreds of party workers gathered at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, and cut a cake, paying tributes to Zulfikar’s leadership.

According to the speakers on the occasion, Zulfikar had vowed that no individual or institution would usurp the power that belongs to the people. “He made sure the power rests in the people’s hands,” Ayub said.

“PPP have come into power six times and people always voted for it in the past. However, our voter demographic is limited mostly to Sindh because we lack proper leadership and party structure,” he added.

“You cannot sit in Dubai and lead the party from abroad,” said Ayub in his emotional speech. He asked Zardari, the co-chairman of PPP, to hold an intra-party election. “This will help workers elect a leader who can lead from within Pakistan,” he added.

“Socialism, equality and rights of people, which are part of the party manifesto, are not being followed,” he claimed, saying that was the reason why the party was “weak”. “Those who looted the party should not hold the helm of affairs anymore,” Ayub said among loud sloganeering of “Long live Bhutto!”

Syed Zahir Shah, senior leader of the party, also said he fully endorses Ayub’s ideas. “It is because our party lacks structure that we did poorly in the local bodie’s elections,” he said. “Our own party workers were contesting elections against each other and no action was taken against them.” He criticised the party leadership for not coming into the field to mobilise its workers.

Zulfiqar Afghani, city president of PPP, while paying tribute to Zulfikar’s leadership, said he made peasants the owners of land they had worked on for centuries and gave the country a constitution.

Swabi

The 88th birth anniversary of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was observed in Swabi, in which district leaders and workers participated. The party workers got a cake weighing 88 pounds and paid glowing tributes to the leadership of late Zulfikar in Chota Lahor. Javed Iqbal, the district president of the party, said the Bhuttos rendered great sacrifices for democracy and the prosperity of the people while in return he and his loved ones have been brutally targeted.

Bannu

The district leadership of the party observed the birth anniversary, in which hundreds of party workers and local leaders participated. Former district president of the party Haji Zafar Ali Khan said Bhutto raised his voice for the rights of the downtrodden during a time when few families had accumulated all the wealth of the country.

Batkhela

In Batkhela, Mehboobur Rahman, city president of PPP, said Bhutto played an important role to unite the Muslim world. “Not only that, he introduced many facilities for the people of Malakand to enjoy,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2016.