ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will concentrate on Punjab after Eid in a bid to gain some seats from the populous province, political aides said.

PPP leaders told The Nation that Zardari and Bilawal were satisfied with the party position in Sindh and were hopeful of clinching some seats in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan but were not too hopeful about Punjab.

“They believe the PPP can win some seats in south Punjab but feel the overall position is not satisfactory,” a senior PPP leader said. He said: “Zardari and Bilawal will spend time in Punjab after Eid to mobilise workers.”

The PPP has a list of electable falling to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Punjab. Nadeem Afzal Chan was the last known addition to the list of PPP leaders who joined the Imran Khan-led PTI in Punjab as the general elections approached. His family members had already quit the PPP in favour of the PTI.

Earlier, Nazar Mohammed Gondal and Firdous Ashiq Awan parted ways with the PPP. They have gathered under former PPP stalwart Shah Mehmood Qureshi who is now the PTI’s second-in-command.

Punjab was once a stronghold of the PPP during the peak of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but it slowly drifted away to the right-wing or pro-right parties. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has been firmly in control of the province over the recent past.

The province, with a bigger population than all the other provinces combined, is effectively the ‘king-maker’ with scores of the National Assembly seats on offer.

Bilawal had aimed to do well in Punjab in this year’s elections after a poor performance in 2013 but this could prove to be an uphill task.

Another close aide to the PPP leadership said that Zardari was pinning hopes on dissidents of the PTI and the PML-N who could join the PPP after Eid.

“That is why we have delayed issuing the list of candidates for Punjab. Hopefully we will find some potential candidates who have filed nominations but did not get PTI or the PML-N tickets,” he said.

PPP central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira said the PPP could perform better than expectations in Punjab.  “This is a difficult time but we have the support among the masses. We can bounce back,” he said.

Kaira said the PPP has made comebacks in the past too when they were ruled out by the rivals. “We have come back from worse situations,” he said.

In 2013, the PPP did badly in all other provinces than Sindh – where they led the provincial government. Since the national elections, the party has been struggling for revival as the PTI tried to fill the vacuum. The party was nowhere in the contest in the last local governments’ polls held in Islamabad and the provinces - except in Sindh.

Zardari believes even 30 National Assembly seats from the 140-plus on offer in Punjab could give the party a realistic chance to lead a coalition government in the centre. Bilawal, however, has higher expectations and insists on even forming the provincial government in Punjab.

Meanwhile, PPP Secretary General Nayyar Hussain Bokhari said that the caretaker government should work within the constitutional mandate.

“The caretaker government should implement the Election Act 2017. The caretaker government is expected to run the day-to-day affairs. The election commission should take notice of the caretaker government’s decisions,” he said.

Bokhari urged the government not to take decisions that were in violation of the Election Act 2017. “Only the elected government can take long-term decisions,” he said.

The PPP leader said recruitment was also a part of rigging and the caretaker government should not indulge in controversial activities.