LAHORE: On Friday, Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stated that his party would carry out its late founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s program of “food, shelter, and clothing” in order to make the country strong and successful.
In his special message on the occasion of ZA Bhutto’s 96th birth anniversary, Bilawal stated that every decision Shaheed Bhutto made proved his political insight and profound attachment to Pakistan.
While paying tribute to the former prime minister, Bilawal stated that the PPP would carry out ZA Bhutto’s program in order to control inflation, unemployment, and poverty.
“We’ll make Pakistan a prosperous and strong country according to the ideology of Quaid-e-Awam,” he said.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born in Larkana on January 5, 1928. Bhutto attended Berkeley and Oxford before becoming a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn.
He began his political career as a member of President Iskander Mirza’s cabinet before being appointed to different ministries during President Ayub Khan’s military administration.
In 1967, Bhutto established the Pakistan Peoples Party. From 1971 to 1973, he was President of Pakistan, and from 1973 to 1977, he was Prime Minister.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari formally launched his election campaign from NA-127 Lahore on Thursday, whereas his party announced his countrywide election rally schedule to capitalize on the political vacuum artificially created by Pakistan’s establishment.
With its only main rival in the field, the PML-N, still deliberating on allotting tickets for Punjab and K-P, PPP leaders were busy canvassing for votes in their constituencies, as the party had already given confirmation to a majority of aspiring candidates regarding ticket award, according to its central Punjab chief.
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According to the interim central Punjab president, the announcement is merely a formality.
According to Bilawal, the PPP has previously published its 10-point plan, which was part of its manifesto.
The party’s communications secretary said on Thursday that the party’s manifesto would be released in the coming days.
The PML-N formed its manifesto committee over a month ago, with more than 30 subcommittees formed under it, but despite all the froth and pomp, nothing had been made public.
The PML-N recently created an online portal to solicit public opinion on its manifesto, indicating that the process was still in its early stages.
Bilawal also went to his election headquarters in Lahore’s Green Town to officially open his election campaign, where he met with a huge number of party workers.
Bilawal will run in three constituencies, including the NA-127 and the party’s heartland of Larkana.
The choice of Bilawal to run for office from Lahore was applauded by his party’s Punjab chapter, which had long believed that the party leadership had abandoned Punjab.
This decision to run from Lahore, a former PML-N bastion, was prompted by PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif’s choice to run from Karachi NA-242.
Though this would be Shehbaz’s second attempt to gain traction in Karachi, Shehbaz previously ran from NA-249 Karachi and narrowly lost to PTI’s Faisal Vawda.
The rationale for choosing this particular constituency was to capitalize on the efforts of two of Lahore’s most prominent leaders, Faisal Mir (the brother of interim Information Minister Amir Mir) and Aslam Gill. Faisal Mir has kept his nose to the grindstone since losing the 2018 election in the hopes of making it to the National Assembly in the next elections.
He had no idea that his hard work would cost him his seat, a former party parliamentarian joked.
Mir is being housed in a provincial seat. Aslam Gill is also reported to have deep origins in this district.
Surprisingly, the local chapter of the party was completely behind Gill.
Bilawal has reduced his prospects of a whitewash by running from this seat, according to the leader.
He further stated that it was an honor for people who had worked hard in this constituency for Bilawal to choose his NA-127 over all others to run from.
The PPP intends to secure this constituency, formerly known as NA-133, as a result of the results of the December 2021 by-election, in which its leader Gill received over 32,000 votes, compared to the PML-N’s winning candidate Shaista Pervez Malik, who received around 46,000. Gill, who had only around 5,585 votes in 2018, increased her vote total by about 26,415 votes, which was no small feat. However, the victory was primarily owed to the PTI candidates’ willful or involuntary misfiling of nomination documents, which resulted in the disqualification of Jamshed Cheema and his wife Musrat Jamshed Cheema.
