ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and PPP leader Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday expressed the hope that his party would form a government after the general elections 2018.

Addressing a public meeting in Jodah village on the outskirts of the capital city, Mr Gilani said the PPP was the only party in the country which represented the federation as it had strong roots in all the provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir.

He said the people of the country were waiting for the next PPP government so that the development projects the party had initiated would be completed. People welfare projects are initiated only during the tenure of the PPP government, he said.

“PPP founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave the nation the gift of nuclear technology which made the defence of the country so strong that India cannot make any adventure to challenge it,” he said.

He said India would only issue threats and cannot dare to challenge the Pakistani nation. “The defence of the country has been made strong due to the efforts of the PPP governments in the past,” he said.

Mr Gilani lashed out at the PML-N government for not taking serious efforts for the transparent investigations of people whose name had appeared in the Panama Papers leaks. He demanded that facts should be made public as soon as possible.

“Where are those who chanted slogans for a change? When will they bring the change in the country? Those who raised the slogans of change did not know the basic issues of the country and are doing nothing good for the people.”

He said the real change was brought in the country by the PPP which gave rights to the common man so that he would live with dignity and raise questions about his rights. He said the party also gave a voice to the voiceless people and Mr Bhutto was the man who brought a change in society.

He said 2018 would be the year when the party would form a government in the country. In this regard, he said, the party had launched a people contact campaign on the directives of party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

“The party’s reorganisation has started in the country and workers are being contacted,” he said.

Earlier, PPP Islamabad chapter leader Faisal Sakhi Butt said the previous PPP federal government had launched development projects in the capital city, including improvement of drinking water supply system and the construction of schools, in the rural and urban areas.

However, he said, these projects were stopped by the present government. He said after coming to power the PPP would restart the projects.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2016