Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) under the leadership of its chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari kicked off anti-government campaign in most populated province of the country Punjab. Leading the protest caravan from Lahore to Faisalabad, Bilawal Bhutto while addressing to the participants said government turned a deaf ear to four demands of PPP and eventually party is not left with any other option but to hit roads in protest.
PPP Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira, Aitzaz Ahsan and Naveed Chaudhry accompanied PPP Chairman at the event. In his aggressive speech, Bilawal claimed PPP would rid the nation from clutches of Sharifs and party wopuld bring more people on streets against the corrupt system prevailing in the country. He was chanting slogans like ‘Go Nawaz Go’ and ‘Jaag Punjabi Jaag’.
He strongly criticised the Sharifs’ government in the centre and Punjab province, saying that the rulers were guilty of increasing inflation, unemployment and poverty in Pakistan. He said that rulers were busy in protecting their interests only and had no sympathy for the issues of the poor.
It can be said that government has ignored demands of PPP because the party is mere a pressure group and lacks ground existence in Punjab. Politically Punjab is dominated by ruling party Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz. In general election of 2013 PPP won eight seats out of 371 in the Punjab assembly and was similarly laid low in the recent local bodies elections as well. Once Punjab used to be a strong hold of PPP but now it its presence in the province has almost vanished. Bilawal is young, energetic and educated leader and perhaps the only hope of PPP to do better in the next elections than the dismal performance in last election. But he has a massive challenge to again establish PPP in the province, the connection between leader and the people at the local level needs to be revived. As only anti-government speeches would not be enough for PPP to achieve permanent recognition and acceptance in Punjab.
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