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Tuesday, March 26, 2013
PPPP to start poll campaign on ZAB’s death anniversaryBy Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: The former ruling party Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) will launch its election campaign for the upcoming general elections on the death anniversary of party’s founder chairman, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The death anniversary of ZA Bhutto falls on April 4 and the party will use this occasion to mobilise its voters through a huge gathering in Garhi Khuda Bux district of Larkana. PPP’s main political rivals Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have already kicked off their election campaign by holding huge public gatherings.
Imran Khan-led PTI launched its election campaign by holding a mammoth public gathering at the Minar-e-Pakistan on March 23, whereas PML-N began its election campaign by staging a gathering in Mansehra on Monday. Lagging behind its political rivals in launching the election campaign, the PPP considers the death anniversary of ZAB as the appropriate occasion to kick off its election campaign.
However, party sources said that the PPPP would not be able to hold huge public gatherings because of security threats to it from the extremist and terrorist forces, which have openly threatened to target the party. On the other hand, the party is still indecisive as to who would lead its election campaign, whereas Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif are single-handedly running their parties’ campaigns.
Some quarters in the party are in favour of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari leading the campaign. However, others believe that it would be risky because of security threats to the young Bilawal. There is a wide perception in the party that the election campaign can be led simultaneously by the party’s stalwarts in various parts of the country. For instance, PPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim might lead the campaign in Sindh, whereas in southern Punjab the campaign can be run by former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
In central Punjab the task can be given to Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, another party stalwart, and in northern Punjab the responsibility can be given to former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. Party sources said that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari might address the public gatherings through telephone because openly leading the campaign may be risky for him. The party is cautious about Bilawal because before the last general elections his mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated when she was coming out of a public meeting from Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk