Bilawal to attend White House breakfast event

PPP trying to lobby against operation in Karachi

WASHINGTON: The PPP has decided to raise the level of their protest against the operation in Sindh to Washington, and Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is trying hard to speak about the powers of Rangers at a Washington think tank early in February.

PPP sources and Pakistanis associated with think tanks say Bilawal is most likely to speak at the US Institute of Peace and surprisingly the subject would be the powers and excesses of Rangers in the operation in Karachi. 

Whether the US think tank would agree to such a localised subject, which is also controversial because of corruption charges against top PPP leaders, is still not clear but the PPP is making serious efforts to present a picture that the party was again being politically victimised by the establishment.

Asif Ali Zardari, who is reported to be in New York these days, is also expected to reach Washington and try to meet some government leaders and congressmen to lobby for his party against the alleged victimisation.  Bilawal, a PPP source confirmed, will be attending the White House prayer Breakfast where hundreds of guests from all over the world are invited and some may also get a chance to shake hands with the president.

In the past when Benazir Bhutto was struggling for democracy she used to attend these breakfast gatherings and that was then used to convey the impression that the US president had invited her to White House. In one of these gathering Rawalpindi leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had also been invited.

On a different track, PPP leader Sherry Rehman will also be in Washington and use her influence to seek meetings between Bilawal and some congressional leaders. She will also speak at the Columbia University in New York.