Bilawal embarks on countrywide tour

PPP chairperson visits Thatta, Sujawal and Badin, set to arrive in Nawabshah today

BADIN: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari embarked on Monday on a tour of Thatta, Sujawal and Badin districts as part of the party's election campaign, after having formally launched the party's campaign in Karachi a day earlier.

"My brothers and sisters from Sujawal have won my heart," Bilawal said, addressing a large crowd gathered to welcome him. PPP and the people of Sujawal have a relationship of trust, he added.

The PPP chairperson reminded the crowd of their love and support for his mother, the late Benazir Bhutto. He added that the upcoming elections would be his first, for which he had initiated the election campaign for his party. "I intend to complete my mother's mission," Bilawal said as he looked around from the roof of his vehicle, holding a copy of the PPP's 68-page-manifesto.

Bilawal claimed that the PPP had presented a revolutionary manifesto. "I know your problems and only PPP can solve them," he claimed.



Before reaching Sujawal from Karachi by road, the PPP chairperson made stops in Quaidabad, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Ghaghar Phatak, Gharo, Makli and Thatta. The party's jiyalas welcomed him with enthusiasm at every transit and promised to would vote for the PPP.

Along the way, former chief minister Murad Ali Shah drove Bilawal's car. Senior party leaders, including former chief minister Qaim Ali Shah, Senator Sherry Rehman, former information minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Naveed Qamar, Waqar Mehdi and Bilawal's spokesperson Mustafa Khokhar were also part of the caravan.

Bilawal seems to be replicating the road campaign of his mother in 2007. After Sujawal, he made a stopover in Badin, from where he was supposed to travel to Hyderabad.

During the road campaign, the PPP chairman addressed the party's voters in several towns along the National Highway until Thatta, from where he directly headed towards Sujawal and Badin.

Addressing a crowd of supporters in Badin, the PPP chairperson tacitly criticised Zulfikar Mirza and his family for leaving the party of his mother. "This is not new for us. It has happened in the past and it may happen in the future also. Those who have left PPP did so for their own vested interests but my interest is that of my mother's - to struggle for the rights of this nation and for every single Pakistani," he said.



The PPP chairperson is set to arrive in Nawabshah today (Tuesday), after brief transits in Hala, Shahdadpur and Sanghar.

According to party leader Sherry Rehman, the PPP caravan met success wherever it travelled to and would help galvanise public support for the party's candidates throughout the country. The senator added  that such a rigorous campaign had been launched by the PPP after a gap of more than a decade. Before the 2013 elections, the party could not organise such caravans due to terrorism threats, she explained.

The PPP leader claimed that the success of the rally so far was proof of Bilawal's popularity among the people. The party plans to complete the tour of Sindh tomorrow (Wednesday). On Thursday, the caravan will enter Southern Punjab.

According to Bilawal, he will meet people of Pakistan from Karachi to Peshawar. "I will not rest till I complete the mission of my late mother, which is to empower each and every one of you," he said.