MULTAN: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday said his party had an unbreakable relation with the masses for being the only party committed to poverty alleviation.
Bilawal urged the people to vote for PPP, saying he was taking part in his first election to complete the mission of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. Addressing a mammoth rally in Shujabad, he said the PPP had successfully run a poverty alleviation programme in Sindh where 800,000 families were benefitted.
He said the PPP had established a state-of-the-art hospital SIUT in Sindh and the PPP would establish a chain of that across the country.
Bilawal said the PPP has always served the poor farmers, as the party founder, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, snatched big land holdings from the feudal and distributed among the poor. Bhutto had fulfilled all the promises made with the masses and he too would also honour his commitments, he added.
Bilawal said the prosperity of farmers meant prosperity of the country. “If the PPP is elected with a majority across the country, it would introduce Benazir Kissan Cards, providing interest-free loans to the farmers and introducing insurance of crops,” he promised.
He said poverty alleviation was the priority in the PPP manifesto and they would issue food passes under ‘Bhook Mukao [End Hunger] Programme’. Food centres would be established run by women at union council level in a bid to strengthen them at grass-root level, said Bilawal, who also announced interest-free loans for women.
Bilawal addressed the crowd at different spots after he left Multan for Shujabad, where former premier Yousaf Raza Gillani is contesting election from NA-158, Multan-V. He was scheduled to stay in Multan on Monday night but he and Gilani left the city for Lahore in connection with the PPP CEC meeting to be held Tuesday (today) afternoon.
It is learnt that the meeting would discuss the situation after the placement of the names of PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur and others on ECL. The PPP insiders disclosed to The News that the PPP would adopt an aggressive stance against the ongoing biased actions against the party. They said the urgent meeting was summoned when the party chairman was present at the Bilawal House, Multan.
Earlier, the PPP workers prevented a police attempt to stop rally which was intercepted on its route in the city. The enraged workers encircled Bilawal’s vehicle when police tried to stop the rally to proceed from BCG Chowk.
Multan DC Mudassir Riaz Malik said it was a violation of election code of conduct. In a letter to the CPO, he said the PPP Multan PPP city president Malik Nasim Laber had filed an application on July 8 [Sunday] just a day before the event, but the code of conduct required at least three days.
He said the district administration could not grant permission to take out rally due to the election code of conduct violations, asking the CPO for taking action against the participants. Talking to this scribe, Malik Nasim said the police had registered a case against the, but such actions could not demoralise the PPP for its commitment towards the people.