Golden Jubilee Foundation Day of PPP was celebrated with Zeal and enthusiasm

MULTAN, Nov 30th: The 50th Foundation Day was celebrated in Multan with former Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and other party office bearers including Dr.Javed Siddiqui, Khawaja Rizwan Alam,Khalid Hanif Lodhi,Babu Nafees Ansari,Syed Ahmed Mujtaba Gilani,Rao Sajid Ali, M.Salim Raja, Ch.M.Yasin,Manzoor Qadri, Mirza Nazir Baig, Salim-ur-rehman Mayo, Raeesuddin Qureshi,  at the residence of Malik Nasim Labar on Thursday .Speaking on the occasion, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani said that  those saying PPP was finished in Punjab were living in a fool's paradise.Instead, it was emerged as a strong and vibrant party “Bhutto had united the Muslim while the western forces joined hands with the anti-people forces in Pakistan to abolish his ideology,” he said. Gilani said that PPP served the people and did not believe in mere lip serving.PPP will continue to serve the nation as per the mission of Martyred Benazir Bhutto and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.Syed Yusuf Raza claimed  that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) would win the next general elections and form the government.
Gilani said that PPP was an ideological party and its workers were its assets.He said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto would hold a public gathering in Multan on December 15, adding that he had been forced to cancel an earlier visit’s plans due to security concerns four months back.To a question, Gilani said his party had reservations over the recent census. He further said that PPP would compete with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf with full preparedness in the general elections of 2018.He said that PPP is the only political party that has strived and sacrificed for the stability of democracy while Nawaz Sharif could not act even on Charter of Democracy. “It is because of his policies that even his companions are parting ways with him,” he claimed. He said that the PPP sacrificed its rule for the protection of democratic system and supremacy of constitution. He claimed that the PPP would win 2018 general elections and offer relief to the poor, labourers, women, students, unemployed citizens and workers. He pointed out that the PPP increased the salaries of federal and provincial employees by 110 percent, confirmed the services of all temporary workers, allowed trade union activities, restored all workers sacked during other regimes, offered pay scale and introduced Benazir Income Support Programme during its previous terms.He hoped that the December 15th public meeting would revive the passion of PPP worker. He said that Multan jalsa would be an historic event and it would remind the people of the public meetings held by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. He said that the women were the most important part of the party who always supported the party and stood with it even today. He said that the PPPP had reorganised itself in Multan and South Punjab and it would win heavy mandate in this region.
From Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to young Bilawal, the PPP has seen many ups and downs in its 50-year long history. Emerging as an ideological party on country’s political horizon on November 30, 1967, the party of Bhuttos is now struggling to reconcile its basic ideology with power politics.
Interestingly, while PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto talks of reverting back to party’s original philosophy given by its founding father ZA Bhutto, his father Asif Ali Zardari believes in the politics of electables. And he has already started working on a plan to keep the PML-N away from the power corridors with the help of politicians with large following in their constituencies.
Senior party leaders including Ch Aitzaz Ahsan, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Ch Manzoor Ahmad have advised Bilawal that PPP could use the left-wing politics as a gimmick to activate the dying party cadres and to get political support from sections of the public believing in liberal values.
Looking from another angle, it also seems to be clever strategy to woo the electorate projecting party’s liberal outlook while also persuading the electables at the same time by showing them an election scenario with a hung Parliament after the elections. Only the time will tell if the PPP succeeds in reconciling the two divergent political approaches in the coming elections.
Before this, the PPP has passed through a phase of complete transformation from a progressive political party to a party which believed in power politics like other parties.
This process had actually started during the period when Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was leading the party especially in her days of self-exile. Once known as a symbol of resistance under its founding chairman ZA Bhutto, and later retaining this disposition until the death of General Ziaul Haq, the PPP gradually became a party of reconciliation. It became evident when Benazir Bhutto signed a controversial NRO with a dictator only to return to power without getting into the hassle of actually launching a democratic struggle once a hallmark of this party.
Nonetheless, a complete transformation of the PPP was noticed during its last stint in power - from 2008 to 2013 - and in the later years. It was during this period that senior party cadres saw their party deviating from the basic principle which served as the very basis of its foundation. These were: “Islam is our faith; democracy is our politics, socialism is our economy and all power to the people”.
One fine morning in April 2014, party’s new leader Asif Ali Zardari declared in a meeting of party’s Central Executive Committee at Larkana that the notion of ‘left and right-wing’ politics had become obsolete in the present day politics. He rejected it as an ideology of 1960s, 70s and the 80s, stating it was no more relevant now.
Zardari had then uttered this in response to a proposal from veteran party leader Ch Aitzaz Ahsan that party should proactively pursue the left-wing politics and reach out to the masses fed up with the extremist tendencies in politics.
Also, ever since the assassination of its leader Benazir Bhutto, the PPP has lost much of its following especially in Punjab. In 2013 general elections and later in the Local Bodies polls in Punjab, the PPP was seen nowhere near to its rival parties.
At present, the PPP is confronting the biggest challenge of its reorganisation in Punjab where it has lost the support of many influential political families who are now part of the PTI. Several of its diehard workers are also no more with the party.
Seasoned politicians including Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali, Syeda Abida Hussain, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Ghazanfar Gull, Maulana Hamid Saeed Kazmi, Jaffar Leghari, Sardar Muhammad Hussain Dogar, Mirza Nasir Baig, Sahibzada Muhammad Gazain Abbasi, Munawar Hayat Abbasi, Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Amjad Dasti, Muhammad Ashraf Khan Sohna, Samsam Bukhari, Niaz Jhakkar, Rana Aftab and Sahibzada Nazir Sultan have left the party for greener pastures in the PTI.
On the issue of party’s revival in Punjab, a section of opinion in the PPP supports the view that leadership should reach out to the middle class in the cities and deprived sections of society which had been supporting the party in the past.
Many also believe in the theory that in order to achieve this end, the party must keep a posture of its being a progressive party to attract a section of the electorate fed up with the power politics. This will also bring the estranged party men back into the party fold.
The present party leadership is also facing another daunting challenge of making the party a cohesive force at the grass-roots level.
While there is a total disconnect between the top leadership and the party cadres at this level, the activists also stand divided into small groups.
There is also a feeling in the party circles that a real transition from Asif Ali Zardari to his son Bilawal was the key to galvanise the party in the biggest province. It is believed that a charisma attached with Bilawal would help defeat the political opponents in Punjab.

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