Bilawal agrees on steps to strengthen PPP

PPP chairman presides over Punjab executive meeting

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday agreed to participate in provincial-level conventions of the party’s allied organisations to establish close contacts with party workers, The Express Tribune has learnt.

He was presiding over a meeting of the PPP Punjab Executive at the Bilawal House. “The chairman has agreed to attend conventions of youth, labour, farmers, lawyers and women’s organisations. They will be organised soon. The party workers will speak about their issues and propose solutions that will be taken into consideration,” a party member who was present at the meeting told The Express Tribune.

PPP Punjab general secretary Tanveer Ashraf Kaira said that the proposal to hold conventions had been discussed at the meeting. “However, a final decision has not been taken yet. The chairman expressed concern over the party’s performance in local government elections. He was of the opinion that the party should have done better,” he said.

Bilawal Bhutto directed office bearers in the Punjab to strengthen party organisation at all levels. “The chairman reviewed party’s performance in local government elections in all 11 districts of South Punjab. He appreciated the party performance in Rahim Yar Khan. A convention of party’s allied wings will be organised in either Multan or Lahore. Farmers’ and labourers’ conventions will be organised in Multan. The students’ convention will be held in Lahore. The chairman is now leaving for Islamabad, where he will hold meetings with office bearers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, where elections are going to be held,” a PPP leader from South Punjab said.

PPP’s South Punjab president Makhdoom Ahmad Mehmood said Bilawal Bhutto would also address a large political gathering in Rahim Yar Khan. “In order to contact people directly, he may also visit some veteran party members at their homes and meet political workers there. This will encourage the old party workers and instill enthusiasm among them,” he said.

Former prime ministers Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf also attended the meeting. Gilani suggested that the PPP should publish its record services for labourers and farmers in a booklet. “The book should be widely distributed,” he said. Bilawal should run the party on the lines of his mother Shaheed Benazir Bhutto who attached great importance to liaison with labourers and farmers, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2016.