Tough decisions: To participate or not to participate

PPP leaders in G-B in a fix with limited resources to send workers to Karachi for Bilawal’s rally

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is pushing its workers to attend Co-Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s rally scheduled for this week in Karachi. However, lack of resources is putting a spanner in its works.

“There are expectations from the central leadership in terms of bringing in supporters, but we are struggling to fulfil these expectations,” a senior PPP leader told The Express Tribune while requesting anonymity. “Politicians in this region are not as well off as those in the rest of the country so they cannot arrange finances to make such trips,” he added.



However, he said regional PPP leaders were hopeful that they would find a way to manage.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s rally is scheduled to be held on October 18 in the port city and the local leadership believes the presence of a large number of workers from G-B would portray a good image to the co-chairperson.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders have already warned PPP G-B chief Mehdi Shah, who is also the chief minister, against using official funds and resources to facilitate their trip to Karachi.

“We will not allow Shah to use his official position in arranging logistics for his workers,” said Fida Nashad, a senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader. If they want to send their workers to Karachi, they should do so using their personal resources, he added.



The opposition leader’s remarks forced CM Mehdi Shah to issue a clarification on the issue, “No one should worry about finances, I am here to do that,” said Shah in a statement issued by the CM Secretariat on Sunday. “The workers wishing to reach Bilawal’s rally will be facilitated and that will be done by the party at all costs.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2014.