KARACHI: The senior leaders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) held deliberations for adopting different measures to deal with recent issues as they met in Dubai on Saturday with party's chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in chair.

Sources privy to the development told Dawn.com that deliberations are mainly aimed at measures to be taken to deal with the increasing decline of party’s popularity in Punjab and adopting the role of ‘real opposition’ at the federal level.

According to further details, the PPP leaders in Punjab namely former federal minister Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira and Senator Aitzaz Ahsan presented a working paper in this regard. The working paper is titled ‘revival of PPP in Central and South Punjab,’ said a source familiar with this development.

The source revealed that the working paper contained proposals for changing party leadership in both central and south Punjab, besides making alignment and realignments for forthcoming local body elections in the province.

The second main agenda of the meeting was related to adopting the role of real opposition in the Senate and National Assembly. This was the reason that mainly Senators and MNAs were invited to the meeting in Dubai, said the sources.

This is second meeting of the PPP leadership in Dubai, in first meeting the party had announced to end its ‘reconciliation’ policy with the PML-N-led government in the Centre.

The sources said that another meeting of the party leadership in Dubai was expected to be held soon to adopt measures for reorganisation and strengthening of the party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The sources said that for forthcoming local body elections in Sindh, the provincial leadership of the party led by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah — who is also the party’s provincial president — had already met former president Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai.

The sources disclosed that two proposals came under deliberations in that meeting about local government polls in Sindh.

They added that initially, PPP chairman Bilawal has shown his desire to not award tickets to siblings of sitting lawmakers but a strong resistance emerged in several districts against this.

As sitting lawmakers of the party demanded mayor-ship of the cities/towns such as Sukkur, Ghotki, Shikarpur and Kashmor etc for their siblings. A final decision to this effect is expected to be taken in another meeting in Dubai later on.

The sources said that ‘differences’ have already emerged among the party leaders as three party leaders were demanding mayor-ship of Sukkur for their siblings. Similarly, two party leaders were demanding mayor-ship of Shikarpur for their family members.

The same was the situation in Ghotki district where three political families were eyeing for the mayor-ship. In Kashmor district, three party lawmakers were also eyeing for the mayor-ship of the district for their family members.

Another challenge in the forthcoming local body polls in Sindh pertained to the emergence of perceived strong anti-PPP alliances such as one led by former disgruntled party leader, Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza in Badin and several party alliance in Larkana.

The sources told Dawn.com that the PPP has got support of former provincial minister Papu Shah who recently joined the PPP in Badin to break the anti-PPP alliance there.

Similarly, the PPP was trying to seek support of a mainstream religious party in Larkana to break the alliance of rival groups there.

The sources said the PPP was contemplating to adopt the same strategy implemented during general election of 2013, namely to seek support of ‘winning horses’ for LB polls.

As they believe that in case, the workers were awarded tickets, they may not win the seats of councilors due to lack of financial resources and influence of community/caste factor.

Meanwhile, the party spokesperson in a brief statement issued on Saturday did not mention agenda of the meeting.

The statement merely said that “senior leaders of Pakistan People’s party have assembled in Dubai for courtesy call on party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.”