MULTAN: Dissident PPP leaders Naheed Khan and Dr Safdar Abbasi on Monday said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto would to free the party of Asif Ali Zardari’s influence, strengthen the role of committed workers and firmly follow the footsteps of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, in case he wanted to revive the party. In an exclusive chat with The News, the couple strongly criticised the Sindh PPP government and accused the every cabinet member of plundering wealth and resources. They said Bilawal needed to get rid of Zardari’s command for rejuvenating Bhutto’s PPP. Criticising the poor governance in Sindh, Naheed said it had been defacing Benazir’s PPP and become a blot in the name of Bhuttoism after breaking all records of corruption. “Innocent citizens are killed in Karachi due to bad governance,” she noted. She said Benazir wanted Zardari to leave the party affairs, adding, “Zardari has weakened the roots of the PPP with his termites.”“Only Shaheed Benazir Bhutto can terminate my PPP membership and bring her back, if someone intends to kick me out of the party,” Naheed said, adding that she and the PPP’s committed workers were the real owners of PPP. The former political secretary of Benazir refuted the reports of her meeting with Bilawal and said only Bhutto’s PPP could be revived and not that of Zardari’s.The couple had launched a new PPP faction - Pakistan People’s Party - Workers (PPP-W) - in October last with Abbasi elected its first president. Naheed said Zardari had submitted a written statement that the PPP was an NGO and thus surrendered the third ‘P’ of Pakistan People’s Party.She said her petition with Islamabad High Court was waiting for hearing. The revival of PPP was possible only if Bilawal come out of Zardari’s clout and took bold decisions to give the committed workers a role in the party. Naheed said the PPP-W was neither a group nor a separate entity and had been formed in the same circumstances in which PPPP was registered for election purposes. “We were the PPP, we are the PPP and we shall remain the PPP, and no one has the right or authority to take away this identity from us as poor masses of this country are the true heirs of Bhutto’s legacy,” she remarked. “Shaheed Chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Chairperson Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto are our leaders and these three offices are forever dedicated to these great leaders.” She said, “We will get inspiration from Garhi Khuda Bux and will try our best to bring all the old guards into the party fold by honouring their contributions. We will make full endeavours to bring new cadres into the party, as it was BB’s desire that they are above 60 per cent of the total population and would play a pivotal role to determine the future politics of Pakistan.” Dr Safdar said the performance of Sindh government was shameful, as hundreds of innocent citizens had died due to poor governance. He said people were dying in Sindh because of heat at hospitals without medicines and the provincial ruling elite were enjoying trips abroad, adding that some of them had gone to United States to celebrate Eid. He said the PPP was defeated badly in the last general polls and losing committed bank vote due to Zardari. He held the PPP co-chairman for the party failure in Gilgit-Baltistan elections and recalled that the PPP had lost numbers of seats in the 1997 elections but the bank vote remained intact when compared with 2013 when the Zardari-led PPP was eliminated from electoral politics. Dr Safdar accused the Zardari of destroyed PPP’s philosophy and said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir always strived for the supremacy of Constitution and Parliament and people’s rights. “Though the PPP is facing numerous problems in the absence of its great leader, we will continue to take forward Bhutto’s mission of people’s empowerment, supremacy of Constitution and Parliament, and restoration of democracy. He said Benazir’s death had left a huge vacuum in politics.
