ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will “take up some political responsibility in September this year”.
The president made the announcement at a meeting in the Presidency with party lawmakers and office-bearers from Gujranwala division on Wednesday.President's spokesman Farhatullah Khan Babar did not mention as to what “political responsibility” would be given to Mr Bilawal Bhutto.
Mr Bilawal Bhutto was made the chairman of the PPP by members of the Central Executive Committee at a meeting held in Naudero after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The CEC had decided that till completion of Mr Bilawal Bhutto's education, his father Asif Ali Zardari would run the party affairs as a co-chairman.
“We have had no smooth sailing and, despite negative propaganda against the government and the party, we have not only survived but waded through gigantic challenges successfully and achieved significant achievements on all fronts,” Mr Babar quoted the president as telling party lawmakers and office-bearers.
The president said that PPP, after completing more than half of its tenure in the government, had now entered the election mode. He asked party workers and lawmakers to enhance contacts with voters in their respective constituencies.
The president said that in the next two years, the party would have to reach out to people and make “new political alignments”. He urged party parliamentarians and office-bearers to dedicate themselves for the welfare of the people as the performance in the government would speak and determine the party position in the next general elections to be held after two years.
He said the people had reposed confidence in the party and “we all must struggle both individually and collectively to come up to their expectations”.
The president asked them to analyse results of each and every by-election to draw lessons from it and to enable them to prepare for future electoral contests in an effective manner.
Mr Babar said that there was also a discussion on results of the recently-held by-elections in Punjab and lessons learnt from them.
The president also discussed the presidential reference to review the case of party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's hanging for which the Supreme Court had already constituted a bench for hearing.
He said the party had no intentions to seek revenge from anybody by sending the reference to the Supreme Court, but it just wanted to set a “historic wrong” right.
The PPP MPs and office-bearers spoke on a host of issues including current political situation, coalition matters, alliance adjustment, party organisation and raised issues relating to their constituencies.
The meeting was also attended, among others, by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Rehman Malik, Naveed Qamar, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Ahmed Mukhtar, Jahangir Badar, Farzana Raja, Fouzia Wahab, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Fouzia Habib, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and Raja Riaz.
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