LAHORE: After his son Bilawal’s statements on Kashmir that caused an uproar in India, People’s Party co-chairperson and former president Asif Ali Zardari has also reiterated the national stance that the Valley is the jugular vein of Pakistan.

Presiding over a meeting of the district office-bearers and party ticket-holders from Sahiwal division in which pro- and anti-Manzoor Wattoo camps also clashed here on Monday, he said Kashmir was the foundation of the PPP and any mishap in the Valley deeply hurt the party leadership and workers alike.

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Referring to India’s expanding role in the region, he said “our neighbour had now settled in Afghanistan… and we’ll have to be extra-conscious in seeking paths of security and prosperity of the country.”

He said as India’s population explosion would dampen its growth, Pakistan was better placed in exploiting the situation with more natural resources but comparatively much less population.

The PPP leader said the reconciliation policy given by late Benazir Bhutto had brought the politicians to a maturity level where all were talking of continuity of democracy and the parliament.

Opposing taking political differences to the point of personal enmity, he said the party would do issue-based politics both within and outside the parliament and would challenge the government’s anti-people policies.

Alluding to the Islamabad sit-ins, Mr Zardari termed the protest a “container drama” fuelled by TV talk shows.

He recalled tough time the PPP government faced at the hands of the former chief justice of Pakistan.

He promised to turn up again at Lahore after the Oct 18 Karachi meeting and develop a personal relationship with the party cadre down to union council level through internet gadgets.

Dismayed at the sloganeering between the two groups during the meeting, Mr Zardari left the meeting only to return after the situation had normalized.

He told the participants that the leadership would have to bear the media grilling for their internal rifts which, he said, had damaged the party most.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2014