Election campaign setback?: Bilawal leaves for Dubai amid reports of rift

Bhutto dynasty heir left after an argument with President Zardari, reports Press Trust of India.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will not be leading the party’s election campaign as he departed for Dubai on Tuesday, days before the party launches its official campaign.

Unnamed party sources, cited by the Press Trust of India, siad Bilawal would not be ‘physically’ taking part in the party’s election campaign due to “security concerns”.

The development comes amid reports that the heir of the Bhutto dynasty had left after an argument with his father, President Asif Ali Zardari, the Press Trust of India reported

According to the report, the PPP chairman had a quarrel with President Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur over the party’s stance on several key issues including militancy, sectarianism and the awarding of party tickets for the upcoming general elections.

Bilawal is also quoted as saying on one occasion “if I had to vote, even I wouldn’t vote for the PPP”, the report mentions.

The news agency reported sources as saying that Bilawal had a particular issue with PPP’s weak reaction to the Malala Yousufzai shooting and the bomb attacks on the Shia community in Karachi and Quetta. Bilawal was also angered by Talpur’s decision to not hand over party tickets to candidates in Sindh whom he favoured, a source told the Press Trust of India.

The PPP is to launch its election campaign on April 4 in Garhi Khuda Buksh.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2013.