NOV 2014: Foundation Day

Bilawal’s no-show makes celebrations lose sheen.

LAHORE:

Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP’s) foundation day celebrations were touted to be a grand affair but chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s absence made the event lose its sheen.The party had announced that the event would be used to reclaim lost ground in the Punjab and Bilawal would use the occasion to placate disgruntled workers. Some PPP leaders had said that he had chosen not to attend the proceedings due to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan’s rally in Islamabad. Others said he had been advised by co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to go soft on the government.

Senator Farhatullah Babar had said that Bilawal had been unable to attend the celebrations due to security concerns. A member of the Central Executive Committee had told The Express Tribune that the party workers had been anxiously waiting for Bilawal’s arrival in the Punjab. He said the party had hyped the event consciously but politics of reconciliation had taken precedence over his tour.

The leader said Bilawal had elected to stay in London and lie low. He said the decision had cost the party dearly as the PTI had replaced the PPP as the second-largest political party in the province.

Co-chairman Zardari had chosen to rap the PTI instead of the government during the main ceremony at Bilawal House. He had reaffirmed his support for the then beleaguered Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, saying that the worst kind of democracy was better than even a benign dictatorship.

Read the full year-in review here.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2014.