LAHORE: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari sees early polls in the country and his party coming into power.“I feel that the general elections will take place in 2017 and that the PPP will emerge as victorious in the elections,” he said at a meeting with beat reporters at Bilawal House here on Wednesday.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari went to each reporter thanking for the coverage given to the week-long celebrations of the party’s 49th foundation day in Lahore and also reminded them he was not an ordinary politician but the son of a martyred [politician].

PPP leaders Qamar Zaman Kaira, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Naveed Chaudhry, Jameel Soomro and Munawwar Anjum were also present.

He said his family could not get justice [as his mother Benazir Bhutto was killed in a terror hit in December 2007] but he would not do politicking on terrorism. He said he would forge an alliance with progressive forces against the menace.

“All will work together if we have a common cause and shared mission,” he said, adding that he would, however, follow his own strategy if other forces did not agree to his terms.

About the Panama case proceedings, he alleged that the judiciary was biased as it was not treating the “Panama Leaks wala prime minister” the way it had treated the PPP prime minister.

Had there been the prime minister of the PPP, he would have been hanged [in the Panama case], he said.

He said the anti-government long march would be announced on Dec 27 if the Nawaz government did not accept his four demands by that time.

He declined to dilate upon his political strategy “prematurely”, saying that he would make his strategy public “as and when required”.

About a joint struggle of the opposition parties against the government, he said he had earlier made an attempt to strike an opposition alliance and would do so again.

He accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of thwarting the alliance attempt by ditching his party in the Jhelum by-polls. “Both the parties had decided to field a joint candidate. The PTI got defected our candidate and launched him as its own but lost the contest,” he said.

“Had both the parties contested the by-election jointly, the Nawaz League would have been defeated by now.”

The PPP chairperson said he would become a resident of Lahore in January and would get engaged in political activities here to give a tough time to the incumbent government.

Published in Dawn December 8th, 2016