MULTAN City News

PPP alive despite all odds: Taj Haider

From Our Correspondent

MULTAN: Senator Taj Haider has said that PPP founder chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was criticised for launching a working class party.

Addressing a seminar titled “What we lost and achieved” in connection with the PPP 48th foundation day here on Thursday, he said that the party was still alive despite all obstacles. He said that the third generation had been engaged with the party and nobody could eliminate the party of martyrs. Senator Taj Haider said that the narrow-minded people united against the PPP when it promoted enlightened politics in the country. He said: “The pro-Taliban elements won the 2013 general elections as the progressive forces had been kept away from the electoral process.” He claimed that the PPP under the leadership of Asif Ali Zardari would win the next general elections with thumping majority. He said that most of the people living Punjab were enlightened and against extremism.

Speaking on the occasion, former prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani supported the Pakistan-India dialogue and said that Pakistan and Afghanistan were twin brothers. He said that the PPP Central Executive Committee had decided to bring Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to the parliament. He said that the PPP had implemented 85pc of the CoD and the remaining could not be implemented due to lack of cooperation by the opposition from 2010 to 2013. Gilani said that the PPP was still ready to implement the remaining CoD if the PML-N cooperated with them. He said that when the PPP launched Swat and Malakand military operations, Mian Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan were calling for dialogue. He claimed that the Zarb-e-Azb was continuation of the PPP policies. He said that the PPP would not allow privatisation of any national entity, including the PIA.

The PPP activists, in their addresses, pledged to reactivate the party at the grass-root level and continue the mission of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. They said: “The local government election results show that the party is still alive in the hearts of masses and it is a ray of hope for the working class.” They asked Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif to follow the vision of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for welfare of the masses. The PPP workers rejected claims of the political rivals that the PPP had lost the public support.

PPP Punjab Record and Events secretary Syed Haider Abbas Gardezi hosted the seminar while PLF south Punjab president Habibullah Shakir, PPP CEC former member Malik Altaf Ali Khokhar, senior PPP leader Malik Mukhtar Awan, Punjab general secretary Shaukat Basra, south Punjab information secretary Khawaja Rizwan Alam and others also spoke on the occasion.