LAHORE - For the first time since taking active charge of the PPP in the absence of his father, Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari spent a week in the Punjab capital to take part in the party’s foundation day celebrations.

This was also for the first time that the party’s foundation day celebrations spread over a week with jiayalas converging at the Bilawal House from across the country. There were extensive arrangements for their entertainment as folk singers amused the party activists with traditional dance and music.

Bilawal mixed up with the party activists who made selfies with him. This was the moment they had been waiting for since long. It was something his maternal grandfather Z.A Bhutto would do when he founded this party. He would even remember names of the party workers in the streets.

Bilawal also took the opportunity to interview candidates to raise new party cadres at the district and teshil levels. “A new PPP is in the making,” he repeated this mantra in almost every speech he made on the occasion.

The PPP chairman also took credit for bringing a young chief minister in Sindh, projecting it a major change he had brought about in that province. But his advisers did not tell their young leader that it was, in fact, an indirect confession that the party his father Asif Ali Zardari had raised after BB’s assassination was worthless; and that his father’s choice of brining a veteran chief minister in Sindh was not a wise decision.

Little did he himself realise that in saying so he was actually telling the party men that he had done something which his father had failed to do.

In his speeches, the PPP leader laid greater stress on his four-point charter of demands even at the cost of repetition. He threatened to go for a long march against the government if his demands were not met by December 27. Bilawal made it a point to make a fiery speech almost every day targeting the ruling PML-N and its leaders. He tried to prove the point that the PML-N leaders, especially Interior Minister Ch Nisar, were not interested in sincere implementation of the National Action Plan. He accused them of having soft corner for the terrorists who roamed around freely targeting innocent civilians and the armed forces with impunity.

Analysts, however, believe Bilawal’s credentials of a progressive leader of a progressive party may fetch him some popularity in the world capitals, but hardly a few would value this message at home. There is no denying that terrorism remains a big issue in Pakistan, but the people who actually go to polling stations to vote for candidates have other considerations in mind. They vote for a party and candidates that they think can resolve their issues of bread and butter besides helping them in matters of courts and police stations, they say.

Bilawal’s announcement to make Lahore his political base from January next year has been received by jiayalas as a significant development for the party’s revival in the biggest province. But many think that Bilawal may not be able to create the desired political impact in Punjab as long as he remains confined to four walls of the Bilawal House. This fortress like a structure away from the main city is not an ideal place for the party workers to assemble from across the province.

More often than not, security issues hamper their free entry into the building having capacity to accommodate some 4,000 to 5,000 people. On the concluding day of the foundation day celebrations, many could not make their way into the Bilawal House due to security issues and lack of space.

While the long-term impact of this weeklong activity in Lahore has yet to be seen, it definitely gave a new lease of life to the dwindling party cadres, especially in Punjab. The party of Bhuttos is almost non-existent in the Punjab if the results of 2013 elections are any indication. Many electables from the Punjab have left the party after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

“In these conditions, such an extensive political activity which generated after a long time would surely revitalise the dying spirit of the party workers here,” veteran PPP leader Altaf Qureshi commented on the foundation day celebrations.