Eye on elections: President uses new province as rallying cry

Says Bahawalpur-South Punjab will address the sense of deprivation.

BAHAWALPUR:

As lawmakers in the upper house of Parliament approved a bill seeking the creation of a separate ‘Bahawalpur-Janoobi Punjab’ province, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Wednesday that Pakistan Peoples Party would address the sense of deprivation among the people of south Punjab.

In an informal interaction with PPP politicians in Bahawalpur, Zardari said the proposed province would usher in an era of prosperity in south Punjab – a region neglected by successive governments in Islamabad.

He said the PPP-led coalition government was completing its five-year constitutional tenure with the help of Pakistani people. He added that his party has prioritised south Punjab for development.



“We will present ourselves in people’s court – and honour whatever decision they make,” he said referring to the parliamentary elections scheduled for this spring. President Zardari said his party has fought against the stereotyping of Pakistan as the epicenter of extremism, and successfully portrayed it as a liberal and modern state.

‘Jiyalas’ stage protest

While President Zardari met with PPP politicians, a group of ‘ideological workers’ of his party set up a protest camp in Bahawalpur city. They cried and wept for their slain leader, Benazir Bhutto, and hanged themselves symbolically.

They claimed that PPP was favouring ‘opportunists’ at the cost of its ‘ideological workers’. “We stood by the party during most testing times. We chanted ‘Jiay Bhutto’ while tyrant Gen Ziaul Haq was in power,” a disgruntled jiyala told The Express Tribune. “But today a bunch of opportunist politicians have taken over the party in Bahawalpur.”  This favoritism, they said, has dented the popularity of PPP in the district.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2013.