ISLAMABAD - ABRAR SAEED - The secretive demeanour of Pakistan People’s Party about its electoral campaign plans is the main reason behind the galvanising of news about the differences between the Bilawal Bhutto Zardari with his father and aunt, whereas the tiff between them did exist but was not of serious nature and subsequently resolved.
This was the crux of the discussion and background interviews with a number of Pakistan People’s Party leaders who were all dead sure about the active role of party’s chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the election campaign of the party.
Apparently, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was off the limelight after his last Dubai visit but the fact of the matter is that he is preparing speeches for the public rallies he is going to address in coming days most probably starting from the last week of current month, a senior party leader informed TheNation on condition of anonymity.
Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar had time and again said that there was not tiff between Bilawal with his father and aunt and that he would play vibrant role in the party’s election campaign but declined to give details about his plans owing to security reasons.
Though quietly but Bilawal Bhutto had kicked start the party’s election campaign from his ancestral town of Nodero by addressing a select gathering of party leaders and activists on April 4, because the public rally called for the day was put off due to the party leaders’ engagement in filing of their nomination papers and of course security issue was also the major cause.
Party’s Central Information Secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira said that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would address some 20 big public rallies across the country during the election campaign but it was yet not finalised that in how many of these rallies he would address in person and how many through video-link.
It was also not decided whether to start the party campaign from the Liaquat Bagh or concluding public rally would be organised in the historic park where the tragic incident of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination had taken place in December 2007.
Some of the party leaders were of the view that the kick starting of public addresses by Bilawal at the Liaquat Bagh would help give enormous boost to the party campaign and similarly the conclusion of the campaign at the very point would have its own impact and would greatly help party to activate the not only the dormant party activists but would also help woo the silent majority in favour of their candidates, a source in the party informed who is privy to the meetings being held in this connection.
Sources in the party informed that majority of the senior party leaders were against that much public exposure of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and suggested that except a few big public rallies he would address the rallies through video-link for which the arrangements were already finalised and big screens would be erected at the venue of the rally.
Sources further said that this time the party has decided to run the election campaign on scientific lines and divided the task among the top party leaders who would take care of their respective areas while the central team would be led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari under the supervision of President Zardari himself, though tacitly, along with party stalwarts like Barrister Ch. Aitzaz Ahsan, Mian Raza Rabbani and others.
This time the main focus of the party would be on Punjab and that was the reason it was divided into three parts with former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf responsible for upper Punjab mainly comprising Potohar region, PPP Central Punjab President Mian Manzoor Wattoo taking care of the party’s campaign in central Punjab while former PM Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani managing the party’s affairs in southern Punjab districts during the elections.
In Sindh former chief minister Qaim Ali Shah along with party stalwarts like Syed Khursheed Shah, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and others would lead the party election campaign in Sindh, considered as PPP’s stronghold, Anwar Saifullah Khan, PPP’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa President along with his team would manage the party’s campaign in KPK while Sardar Fateh Mohammad Hasni and his team would take care of Balochistan.
The overall party campaign would be monitored by a central campaign cell, which would comprise a team of party stalwarts including Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and would function under the tacit supervision of President Asif Ali Zardari, because of the legal bar on him to take direct part in the political activities.