Change in tactics: Bilawal to supervise LG elections campaign from home

HYDERABAD:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will supervise the campaign for the upcoming local government elections from Bilawal House, said PPP Senator Saeed Ghani in a press conference on Saturday.

"Some security concerns have been raised for the leaders," said Ghani. "We don't want to comprise over it."  Bilawal and PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari may visit a few places but it is not sure if they will hold public meetings or not, he added.

"Bilawal and his father will supervise the campaign from Bilawal House through a video link," Ghani said. He acknowledged the fact that workers, including himself, wish that Bilawal was leading the campaign. "But we all also realise the security problems our leadership faces."

Ghani said that the party has decided to allow its lowest cadres to make alliances in Karachi with any potential political party. However, he was not certain that similar election alliances will be formed in the rest of Sindh.

Separate province

"One day the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) say they want a separate province, the other day they start claiming Sindh as their motherland," Ghani pointed out. He expressed apprehension that the demand will fan the flames on ethnicity in a province, which has survived through a phase of a flared-up ethnic division.

"I hope unlike the past they [MQM] will not make violent statements such as khoon ki nadiyaan [streams of blood] will be split [to achieve the objective]." Ghani believed that the renewed demands for a separate province reflect the political pressure, which the MQM continues to face due to the ongoing security operation in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2015.