Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday that his party would form the next government and vowed to turn the country by “110 degrees”.
In a meeting with party leaders at Bilawal House, the ex-president said, “We will take the entire share [in the government] next time.”
He has also given a signal to the powers that be that he would change the fate of the country if his party is given the chance again.
Zardari, who is making frequent visits to Lahore, has said he will engage party leaders in Punjab and work with them for the next polls.
He added that claims of PPP’s politics coming to an end in Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab are “white lies”.
PPP “weakened” its political presence in a bid to “save” the country, Zardari claimed. “They don’t listen to us and only do when they need us,” he said, without naming anyone.
He has also planned to shift his sitting place to facilitate the workers who face hardships to reach Bahria Town to meet him.
“I am now moving to Gulberg because the workers face trouble while travelling to Bahria Town,” he added.
The PPP, which was founded in Lahore on November 30, 1967, had a stronghold in Punjab until 1985 – the year when it decided to boycott the non-party base general elections under the dictatorial rule of then army chief General Zia-ul-Haq. Since then, the party has been trying to recoup but its efforts have been proven to be fruitless.
From 2008 to 2018, the PPP could hardly get a few thousand votes in different elections and in many constituencies, the surety bonds of the candidates were confiscated by the ECP.
The party’s Lahore leadership, in the recent long march of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, miserably failed to gather the ‘Jiyalas’, and Nasser Bagh was crowded with outsiders.
In his address, Zardari gave assurance that he would give “due respect” to the party leaders and workers.
“I will give the workers due respect and will make them feel that their president is among them,” he said.
Lashing out at former prime minister Imran Khan, the ex-president said the surge in inflation is due to the “favourite” person’s policies that he adopted in his 3.5-year tenure.
