To be or not to be: Bilawal’s plan for Benazir anniversary unclear

Zardari and Bilawal are in London and their return schedule is unknown

LAHORE: With just two days left before the seventh death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto falls due, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) central leadership is still divided on who will lead the main ceremony in Naudero.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari are both in London.

“The rumours of rift or any differences between Asif Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto are baseless. Chairman Bilawal and Zardari Saheb will attend the main ceremony in Naudero together,” PPP Punjab Secretary General Tanvir Ashraf Kaira told The Express Tribune.

He, however, didn’t know exactly when Bilawal would be back. Bilawal is in London since November and even did not participate in PPP Foundation Day ceremonies which he was earlier supposed to lead.

“It is likely that Bilawal will be back for his mother’s death anniversary but nobody knows about his schedule yet. There is something going on between the father and the son since Bilawal was stopped from going hard on Sharifs by his father on the Foundation Day activities in Lahore,” a senior PPP leader told The Express Tribune.

“The level of coordination among the party’s central leaders can be gauged from the fact that half of them are saying Bilawal will deliver a speech at BB’s death anniversary while the other half says he is not coming to attend it,” he added.

Asif Ali Zardari’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar told The Express Tribune that Zardari was coming back for the anniversary’s ceremonies but he wasn’t sure about Bilawal.

“Normally we get to know about the chairman’s schedule prior to his arrival but so far I have no information. I spoke to Bilawal’s Political Secretary Jehangir Badar but he also doesn’t know. This means chairman may not be coming but I cannot confirm it,” he maintained.

Political Secretary to Bilawal Bhutto Senator Jehangir Badar said he hadn’t received confirmation about Bilawal’s arrival.

PPP central leader Senator Saeed Ghani also rejected the notion there were any differences between Bilawal and Zardari.

“Zardari Saheb goes to London occasionally for different engagements. Sometimes chairman and co-chairman go together and sometimes separately. He is not in London to reconcile with Bilawal,” Ghani said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2014.