‘Roti, kapra ka buhran’: ‘PPP’s jiyalas are disgruntled with its leadership’

Ghulam Qadir Bhutto says he has the Bhutto clan’s support.

SUKKUR: Ghulam Qadir Bhutto, the vice president of a new Pakistan Peoples Party faction, is confident that his group has significant political clout and will be able to make a dent in the ruling party’s vote bank.

The faction, called Pakistan Peoples Party, was formed by Naheed Khan, a close aide of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The ruling party is registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as Pakistan Peoples Party - Parliamentarians.

Khan has become the president of the new faction, Pir Mukhtiar Shah its deputy general secretary, Waheed Golra its general secretary and General (retd) Ehsanullah Khan its information secretary.

While talking to The Express Tribune, the new faction’s vice president lashed out at the ruling party, saying that it has stopped advocating the rights of those it claimed to represent. “Pakistan Peoples Party - Parliamentarians has turned into the Zardari League. It will vanish soon after the present government completes its tenure.”



He added that Khan has already submitted an application to the ECP for the party’s registration. The ECP has also been requested to allot the symbol of a sword or an arrow to the new faction.

“Naheed Khan is a diehard follower of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto,” said Ghulam Qadir. “Though they aren’t among us today, they are still the torchbearers of the nation - especially the downtrodden people across the country. That’s why we have named them the chairpersons of the new faction.”

He added that PPP’s jiyalas, disgruntled with the ruling party and its present leadership, are looking elsewhere for their rights. “Sardar Aamir Bhutto and his clan have welcomed our faction, hopeful that oppressed people will finally get their legitimate rights.”

Recalling the events of 1967, he said that the then foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had developed serious differences with Field Marshal Ayub Khan and announced the formation of Pakistan Peoples Party after his return from Tashkent, establishing an office in a hotel in Lahore. “I announced joining the PPP along with my father and brother and other clansmen.”

Ghulam Qadir said Bhutto was well aware of the fact that every party needs loyal workers, so he valued every activist. “He used to say that the fountainhead of power lies with the people and parties are nothing without loyal workers,” he said. “I just can’t tell you how much he used to love his workers.” He added that the ruling party had ignored the very workers who struggled for it over two decades and this is simply unfair.

“The ruling party’s leaders claim they have implemented the manifesto of ‘Roti, Kapra aur Makaan’, but this isn’t true,” he said. The rulers have literally deprived people of roti, kapra aur makaaan, subjecting them to lawlessness, rising inflation, unemployment and many other problems, he added. “The people have forgotten everything including roti, kapra aur makaan because of terrorist activities and are just demanding peace for their children.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2013.