Pakistan - #PPP workers renew support for the party

Enthusiastic activists of Pakistan People’s Party from across the country thronged parade ground to renew their pledge with the party on its golden jubilee celebrations.

The PPP supporters started reaching the ground in morning in forms of groups and packed the venue before the sun set. The PPP anthems and famous slogan ‘Jiye Bhutto’ (Long Live Bhutto) was being enchanted by the party workers in every corner on the venue. The participants waved the party flags while responding to the speeches of prominent leaders.

The local PPP leadership decorated Islamabad Expressway with huge banners and posters of the PPP to welcome their chairman Bilwal Bhutto Zardari.

However, only few posters were seen carrying the picture of PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

A security official informed The Nation that more than 6,000 chairs had been placed in the parade ground for the participants.

The number is expected to cross twenty thousands, he said.

Majority of the people travelled from Sindh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Central and South Punjab. However, relatively low numbers of the participants were from the Rawalpindi division.

The PPP workers , exhibiting their traditional attachment with the party and chanting the particular slogans, were dancing to songs and anthems of the party. “There is only one political party in the country, rest of all are ant-PPP,” said Afzal, an old man on clutches, wearing the party cap. He said that he along with the procession of hundreds of people travelled from Shikarpur as it was the call from Bilawal Bhutto.

The old man inspired from the politics of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto said that the worker had attached great hopes with Bilawal.

Leaders of PPP from the provinces were motivating the crowd before arrival of Bilawal; the workers from lower and middle class sections of the society were getting more attention than the leaders.

Chaudhry Bashir, from a religious minority community, carrying the cross, participated in the rally along with dozen of his fellows to express solidarity with the PPP . “We all contributed the amount and hired a vehicle and sound system to attend the sit-in from Taxila,” he said. He said that PPP was the party that always ensured protection of minorities and cared about the party workers .

Meanwhile, PPP senior leader Akhunzada Chittan said that though worker was the strength of the PPP but during the last few years, the party lost the trust of its workers . “It is unfortunate that the worker always stood with the party in difficult times, but when the party was in power, its leadership forgot their sacrifices,” he said.

He said that the party had more vehicles and fewer workers now, but still its strength was ‘jiyalas’. A large number of female PPP supporters also participated in the gathering, but Sindhi culture dominated the women enclave. Murad Bibi from Liyari while talking to The Nation said that they had reached with more than one hundred other persons to attend the rally. “Liyari always responds to the PPP whenever it is called,” she said.

The middle aged women still attaching hopes with the PPP said that the real worker could not leave the party as it had brought the hope to the poor people of Liyari. “Benzair loved Liyari people and Liyari cannot forget it,” she said.

Nasira Shafqat, Coordinator PPP Punjab women wing, said that the party did not perform well in the recent by-election held in NA120, but still it could not be eliminated from Punjab.

She said that the PPP disgruntled voter could isolate itself from the polling but it could not support any other party. “The PPP manifesto of addressing basic necessities of life is the backbone and a bridge between the poor and the leadership,” she added.

Noor Jehan from Umer Kot said that dozens of women from Thar had reached the federal capital to pledge their loyalty with Bilwal Bhutto and the PPP . Benazir Bhutto was said to be chain of four provinces and here we are witnessing people from all the regions, she said. “BB sacrificed her life for people and we will continue supporting her party and son”, she said.