GUJRAT: Senior leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party in a bid to muster support for party candidate Asif Basheer Bhagat in the NA-108 by-election has reminded the people of Mandi Bahauddin that it was the PPP that had awarded the area a status of district two decades ago for which the area people had been striving since long.

Before the creation of the district, Mandi Bahauddin and Malakwal were the part of Phalia tehsil in Gujrat district.

The PPP organised a big public meeting in Mandi’s Quaid-i-Azam ground on Thursday night which was addressed by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah and Manzoor Wattoo, the Punjab PPP president, who had announced the status of district for Mandi Bahauddin when he headed a coalition government in Punjab backed by the PPP.

Since NA-108 comprises areas of Phalia and Mandi Bahauddin tehsils of the district, Wattoo told the audience how he took a “bold step by liberating the people of this particular area from the clutches of the all influential Chaudhrys (of Gujrat) and now this area has its own identity.”

He said it was the PPP that had established a separate passport office in the Mandi Bahauddin district.

Gilani said the PPP was the only party representing all the federating units of the country.

He said grievances of party workers would soon be resolved under the leadership of Bilawal Bhutto.

Former federal minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal, former MNA Nadeem Afzal Chan, district PPP President Dewan Shamim Akhtar and Asif Bhagat also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2015

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