Achievements of PPP will speak in general polls, says Zardari
* President meets PPP parliamentarians in Punjab, discusses provincial issues
By Kashif Hussain
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Source - Dailytimes.com
LAHORE: The achievements of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government will speak in the next general elections and the party will once again win the elections despite negative propaganda by its detractors, said President Asif Ali Zardari while addressing a meeting of the PPP Punjab Parliamentary Party at the Governor’s House.
The president arrived in the town on Wednesday for a four-day visit during which he will hold meetings with parliamentarians, politicians, Pakistani cricket team and other officials.
He reached the Lahore airport on a special plane, where Punjab Governor Latif Ahmad Khosa received him. From the airport, he directly reached the Governor’s House amid tight security along the route of his movement across the city.
After some rest, he held a meeting with the Punjab governor and discussed issues related to the province. In the evening, he held a special meeting with the PPP Punjab Parliamentary Committee.
Sources told Daily Times that parliamentarians of the provincial assembly of Punjab expressed their grievances against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government and its non-cooperative attitude toward them, saying the PPP parliamentarians were being treated negatively while they had been pursuing their policy of politics of reconciliation. They also raised the issue of stoppage of development funds from the Punjab government. Some matters related to strategy for the next general elections were also put forward in the meeting by the Punjab parliamentarians, sources said.
Party sources said that some angry parliamentarians, including Abbas Raan, did not attend the meeting despite an invitation from the party. The issue of five ‘disobedient parliamentarians’ of the PPP, who polled their vote against the party decision in the recent Senate elections, also came under discussion.
Some parliamentarians also highlighted the issue of load shedding in the province, saying the issue could affect the party in the next general elections, especially in Punjab “where the PML-N government had made it a key issue to turn the people of the province against the PPP”.
Party sources say the decision of a four-day visit to Lahore was made by the president after getting some suggestions from party leaders who were of the view that distance between the party’s top command and workers had been increasing.
According to sources, the president will also meet Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials led by the board’s chairman, Zaka Ashraf. Pakistani cricket team will also meet the president. Zardari will congratulate the team on their success in the recent T20 tournament. The meeting will be held at the Governor’s House, where the president will stay during his four-day visit.
The sources said that after spending four days in the provincial capital, the president would leave for India for a brief visit to the shrine of Khawaja Moeenuddin Chishti in Ajmer Sharif on Sunday.
The source further said that some of the president’s family members were expected to accompany him during his tour to India. Zardari visited Khawaja Moeenuddin’s shrine last time in 2005, along with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.