HYDERABAD: Pakis­tan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has sought to dispel the impression that the party has lost ground in Punjab, saying the PPP’s performance in that province should be seen in the backdrop of rigging and the Taliban.

“Lost ground? No, not at all, you will see what I will do there [in Punjab],” he said while responding to a questioner after offering Fateha at the tomb of Housh Mohammad Sheedi (better known as Houshu Sheedi), a nationalist hero who laid down his life fighting the British as the commander of Mir Sher Mohammad Talpur’s army in 1843 in the battleground of Dubbo.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari visited the tomb in Goth Siyal near Rahuki, some 12 kilometres from here, on Friday in his first visit to Hyderabad district.

After arriving here by helicopter, the PPP chief briefly spoke to journalists before leaving for Karachi. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, Livestock Minister Jam Khan Shoro, Maula Bukhsh Chandio, Saghir Qureshi and other senior party leaders accompanied him.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari promised to visit Hyderabad again after his mother’s (Benazir Bhutto’s) death anniversary in December and stay here for a few days.

Earlier, reading from a written text, he told a crowd outside the tomb that he had come to the great personality who challenged invaders of Sindh and laid down his life chanting ‘Marveysun, marveysun per Sindh na desun’. “Following in Sheedi’s footprints, I want to tell enemies of Pakistan, enemies of Sindh and enemies of Karachi that it is our Pakistan, it is our Sindh, it is our Hyderabad and it is our Karachi,” he said.

Describing Karachi as the ‘Kohinoor of Sindh’, Mr Bhutto-Zardari made an emotional appeal to PPP activists and supporters to attend the rally in Karachi on Saturday.

Strict security arrangements made for the visit caused residents of the village to remain indoors. However, a large number of them, including women and children, came out of their houses raising slogans of ‘Jeay Bhutto’ on seeing Mr Bhutto-Zardari disembark from his vehicle, that later took him to the helipad.

All entry/exit points of the area were manned by police during the PPP chairman’s visit.

A culture department official, Asjad Mehmood, briefed Mr Bhutto-Zardari about the conservation of the tomb. He said it would be developed as ‘Sheedi complex’ on the pattern of Chaukundi. Visitors would find a new look on the March 24 anniversary of the real hero of Sindh, he said.

A day earlier, the PPP chairman visited the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan Sharif.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2014