The Pakistan People’s Party leadership on Saturday decided to restructure the party in Punjab, starting from Lahore by focusing on 500 union councils (UCs) in the first stage.
The restructuring would be completed before March 2022 as presidents of all zones were given the task to fulfil their responsibilities in this regard.
“We will start to restructure the party from the union council level in Lahore,” said Chaudhary Aslam Gill while chairing the first meeting at Walton office since he assumed the charge as PPP’s Lahore president.
Lahore is the city where the PPP took birth on November 30, 1967. It had a stronghold there until 1985 – the year when it decided to boycott the non-party-based general elections under the dictatorial rule of the then army chief, General Zia-ul-Haq. Since then, the party has been trying to recoup, but its efforts have remained largely fruitless.
The purpose of restructuring at the moment was aimed at the upcoming local bodies elections in Punjab. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had expressed huge interest in Punjab and vowed to build the party on a strong basis ahead of the next general elections.
Former president and PPP co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari had also announced to come to Lahore and hold a camp to run a campaign for the sake of the party.
Gill, who showed good performance in recently held by-polls of NA-133, is far more optimistic to revive the party in Lahore.
Addressing the workers, Gill said that they would win the next elections under the leadership of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. He said, “In the first phase, we will focus on 500 UCs,” making it clear that the restructuring process would not be based on friendship or faces.
The Lahore president announced that they would appoint 5,000 officeholders at the grassroots level.
“There are ten towns of Lahore, and we will build the party based on these towns instead of four districts,” said Gill.
He said that the plan, however, was yet to be approved by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and that they would start working on it as soon as it was approved.
He also directed the party workers to start preparing for the local bodies’ elections.
Criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government, Gill said that this government was not elected through votes.
“Inflation is the result of the policies of the PTI government,” he said, adding that a hike in the prices of petroleum products was another burden on already burdened masses and the party rejected it.
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