ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party Chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari aims to politically conquer Punjab as his party bids to return to power in 2018, party leaders said.
Punjab was once a stronghold of the PPP during the peak of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but it slowly drifted away to the right-wing or pro-right parties. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has been firmly in control of the province over the recent past.
The province, with a bigger population than all the other provinces combined, is effectively the ‘king-maker’ with scores of the National Assembly seats on offer.
Even in the last elections, the PML-N came to power riding over the popularity wave in Punjab. In other provinces, its performance was insignificant.
Bilawal has appointed a new team in the province, dividing it into two parts – the south and central Punjab – and is also working to revamp the party at the grass-root level to realise his dream of doing better in the populous unit.
The PPP chief will launch a ‘save Punjab’ campaign tomorrow (January 19). He will lead a rally from Lahore to Faisalabad before joining his father Asif Ali Zardari in the US. When they come back, the duo will contest by-election to enter the parliament aimed at forging new alliance and giving the government a tough time.
“PPP will begin our awami rabta mohaim (mass contact campaign) with a rally from #Lahore to #Faisalabad on the 19th. #BhuttoDayNaray (metaphorical meaning: Bhutto will be victor),” Bilawal said on Twitter.
PPP Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira said Bilawal will ‘thrash’ the government during his Punjab rally. “We will give the government a tough time. They will have to accept our demands and the whole Pakistan will see our popularity. This is a campaign to win back our stronghold,” he told The Nation.
Kaira said if fair elections were held, the PPP will win with a margin. “The last performance (in 2013 elections) does not reflect our popularity. The elections were rigged against us,” he alleged.
The PPP leader said Bilawal aimed to concentrate on Punjab in the coming months to do better in 2018 polls. “Talks are on with the electables. People are joining us, more people are coming. We will be ready before the polls,” he predicted.
In 2013, the PPP won only eight seats in the Punjab Assembly out of 371, prompting the commentators to reduce it to a ‘pressure group’ instead of a national party.
Kaira said Bilawal’s Punjab campaign will be spread over months during which the PPP will expose the wrongdoings of the PML-N.
For the past many months, Bilawal has handled the PPP – taking the reins from his father Asif Ali Zardari, who has been elected as the head of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians. This position allows him full authority over the elected members of the party in the provincial assemblies, the national assembly and the Senate. The father has given the job to Bilawal to improve the party’s popularity graph and make changes if necessary to achieve the goal.
The party was nowhere in the contest in the Local Governments’ polls held in Islamabad and the provinces last year except Sindh. In the 2013 polls too, the party was confined to Sindh. Since the 2013 polls, the party has been struggling for revival as Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf tried to fill the vacuum.
PPP leader Faisal Kundi said Bilawal was aiming to moblise the workers in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “We will be busy in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year. People are coming and more are to follow. Bilawal will give more time to Punjab and Islamabad this year,” he said.
Kundi, a former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, said in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the PPP was in talks with Qaumi Wattan Party chief Aftab Ahmed Sherpao and other parties.
“We have told Sherpao that only we can make him the Chief Minister. No other party can elevate him to that post. If he is not ready for merger, we can make an alliance like that of the PPP and the PPPP,” he maintained. The PPP and PPPP alliance is aimed at allowing Zardari and Bilawal to use a single election symbol ‘arrow’ in the by-elections.
Kundi said the focus of the PPP chief will be Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “We are doing better in Sindh. We will of course give them attention to keep it up. In Balochistan, we are in talks with the electables to perform better. The main focus will be on Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as far as the mobilisation campaign is concerned. Electables are joining us in all the provinces. We are in talks with many people,” he said.
He said the ‘save Punjab’ campaign was an election, moblilisation and reorganisation effort. “Bilawal will look after all these aspects. He will stay in Punjab and Islamabad to keep any eye over the developments personally. From Islamabad he will be able to meet the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa members easily,” he explained.
