BADIN: Pakistan Peoples Party-Workers (PPP-W) president and founder leader of the Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI) Dr Safdar Abbasi held a meeting with estranged Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former home minister Dr Zulfikar Ali Mirza late on Tuesday evening and invited him to join hands with his party and alliance in their “struggle for the accomplishment of the mission initiated by PPP founder leader late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and carried forward by his daughter Benazir Bhutto.”

Sources close to the two estranged PPP stalwarts claimed that Dr Abbasi wished Dr Mirza to join his PPP-W. Speaking to reporters at the Badin Press Club after the meeting, Dr Abbasi said he congratulated Dr Mirza and his associates on their excellent performance in the second phase of the local government elections in Badin district.

He said he was optimistic about Dr Mirza’s positive response to his offer.

He described Dr Mirza as ‘the man of principles’, and said he was fighting for the rights of the people of Sindh especially the neglected PPP workers.

Paying tribute to him for his eight-year-long struggle, Dr Abbasi said he had been in touch with the Mirza family during the period. He termed the PPP performance in the ongoing local government elections across the country ‘dismal’, and said that the party was baffled by the victory of the Mirza group.

He said the PPP-W fully supported the group’s fight against the corrupt elements ruling over Sindh.

Dr Abbasi said he and his family members including Naheed Khan would continue the struggle to rescue the ‘hijacked’ PPP from Asif Ali Zardari and his associates “who had betrayed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto by deviating from their mission and indulging in massive corruption.”

The PPP-W leader said his party stood second with 40 seats in the local government election in Larkana despite rigging by the PPP.

In reply to a question, Dr Abbasi told Dawn that the PPP supporters in Sindh would reject the leadership of [PPP chairman] Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari if he followed in the footsteps of his father and other opportunists within the party in politics and governance.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2015