Zardari directs PPP leaders to gear up for LB polls

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Friday directed the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to get ready for the forthcoming local bodies (LB) polls due this year and asked PPP leaders to reach out to the people.
He said this during a meeting with a delegation comprising of legislators and party office bearers of Khyber Pukhtunkhaw led by provincial President Senator Khanzada Khan that called on him at Zardari House in Islamabad on Friday evening.
Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and PPP Vice President Parliamentarians Sherry Rehman also attended the meeting.During the meeting it was decided that PPP would challenge non-party polls if these were held in any province or at cantonments.
“The local bodies are nurseries of democracy and it was essential that elections to these nurseries were held on party basis,” Asif Ali Zardari told the delegation. The former president said that he will soon visit Peshawar to meet party workers ahead of local bodies’ polls and asked the provincial chapter of the party to undertake the groundwork for this purpose.
Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said Asif Ali Zardari made it clear that the party wanted elections to all tiers of local bodies on party basis and asked party leaders to draw up committees at various levels to hunt suitable candidates and plan electioneering campaign.
The PPP Co-chairman also directed former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Vice President Sherry Rehman to visit Peshawar ahead of his own visit to the province to prepare ground and assist provincial President Khanzada Khan and his cabinet for mobilisation of the party at grassroots level.
He commended provincial party leaders and workers for carrying out political work despite militants’ threats and heavy odds. “You should remember that your fate as well as fate of the party is in the hands of people and this realisation should serve as your political compass,” he told the delegation.