LAHORE: Former president Asif Ali Zardari has said the four-year period of the PPP’s reconciliation approach towards the PML-N and others has ended and now onwards the party will do “politics of resistance”.

“In the fifth year of this (PML-N) government we will do politics of agitation. And you are free to hit out at those targeting your leadership,” Zardari said while addressing the ticket-holders and office-bearers of Rawalpindi and Sargodha divisions at the Bilawal House here on Monday.

Mr Zardari said Bilawal was fully empowered to run the party. “The combination of youth (Bilawal) and experience (Zardari) will give a new impetus to the party. We will win the 2018 election,” he said.

He also announced holding the PPP’s next public meeting at Chakri. “Start preparation for this rally,” he asked the workers.

He reiterated that the PPP was defeated through a “conspiracy” in the 2013 election, but in 2018 the party would monitor each and every polling station and would not let the ruling party succeed in its “rigging plan.”

Giving the example of Mustafa Khokhar, who lost the last election in Islamabad, Mr Zardari said Mr Khokhar lost despite bagging 100,000 votes. “There were many other constituencies where rigging took place,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2017