PPP plans to flex muscle in Lahore

LAHORE:

Seeking to claw back political relevance in a city where it has steadily faded from view, the Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) Lahore chapter has announced a "Kashmir Bana Ga Pakistan" rally on February 1.

The party touts the rally both as a show of political presence in the provincial capital and a tentative step towards reviving the party's fortunes in Punjab.

The rally, which will be held amid what party leaders privately diagnose as a persistent political vacuum, is being seen as an effort to test the waters for political space in Lahore, a city long considered crucial for any serious provincial comeback.

For the PPP, whose organisational footprint in Punjab has steadily shrunk over the years, the event marks a renewed attempt to reinsert itself into the political conversation.

Once a dominant force, the PPP's decline in Punjab has been gradual but pronounced, leaving the party dependent on only a handful of electables.

Among the factors contributing to this erosion, party insiders point to opportunistic decision-making, an absence of sustained leadership in the province, and an organisational drift that hollowed out its grassroots presence.

Although the party's central leadership, the Bhutto-Zardari clan, made repeated visits to Punjab, these failed to translate into meaningful political gains. Local leadership, meanwhile, gradually lost momentum, receding to the margins. At times, figures such as former PPP parliamentary leader in Punjab Hasan Murtaza broke through the airwaves with sharp and occasionally witty interventions, but despite keeping the party visible, these efforts produced little tangible outcome.

The party has recently undergone a reorganisation in Punjab, bringing new faces into leadership roles at the local level. Among the changes, the most significant was in Lahore, where fiery leader Faisal Mir was handed the reins.

The move carried added weight given Lahore's symbolic and strategic importance as a potential launching pad for a broader revival.

According to party insiders, Faisal Mir, who had waited in the wings for several years for a meaningful organisational role, was keen to send a strong message both within the party and beyond.

An event was therefore planned, but with the PPP currently maintaining a delicate political understanding with the PML-N, a neutral issue was selected as the rally's theme.

As part of the mobilisation drive, the PPP Lahore division also ran an awareness campaign for the Kashmir Bachao Rally, scheduled for February 1. It was announced that the PPP Lahore would hold the rally from Nasir Bagh to the Punjab Assembly. Speaking on the occasion, Faisal Mir said that all wings of the PPP were being mobilised to ensure the success of the February 1 Kashmir Rally.