PPP plans mass rally: Benazir’s death anniversary could draw over 1m

President Zardari is expected to deliver a fiery speech at Garhi Khuda Bux.

ISLAMABAD: Even in death, Benazir Bhutto remains the biggest draw for supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

The PPP plans to gather at least one million people on the fourth death anniversary of its former leader, in what would be a defiant show of public power amid an apparent stand-off with the country’s security establishment.

Party leaders told The Express Tribune that President Asif Zardari is expected to deliver a fiery speech at the rally, which will take place at the Bhutto family’s mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bux. The content of the speech is likely to be a retort to those perceived as hatching conspiracies against the democratic government.

The leadership has reportedly directed all its MPAs and MNAs to bring at least 10,000 people from their districts for the anniversary on December 27.

The PPP’s president of its Punjab chapter, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, told The Express Tribune that “the death anniversary of the Shaheed BB will be attended by more than one million people from all across the country.”

While talking about participants from Punjab, he said “people from every village, town, tehsil and district will attend the anniversary and pray for BB.” He added that members from every rung of the organizational hierarchy will attend, including the party’s student federation, youth wing, labour wing and lawyer’s wing.

Responding to a question that the party had issued instructions to ensure a massive presence, Warraich said that “we have never used the occasion as a show of strength since people congregate and attend the prayers as per their reverence for the Shaheed BB.”

Senator Safdar Abbasi, a former confidant of Bhutto, said that he was unaware of the arrangements being made by the government with regard to the anniversary and added: “I will visit the mausoleum of Shaheed BB.”

“No one can stop me from visiting the mausoleum even though I would not be attending the Central Executive Meeting of the party since my membership has been suspended,” he said.

The PPP official said that the top leadership of the government’s allied parties – the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – had also promised to send their workers to take part in the rally.

“It will be a show of power in favor of democracy… we don’t think that a political party is under threat. Rather, in our view it is the elected parliament which is being pushed against the wall. So, we have a point in attending the event,” said an ANP leader. (WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING FROM QAMAR ZAMAN)

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2011.