LAHORE: PPP co-chairperson and former president Asif Ali Zardari cut a cake at Bilawal House here on Monday to mark 68th birthday of ex-prime minister late Benazir Bhutto.

Party leaders including Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood, Chaudhry Manzoor, Hassan Murtaza, Samina Ghurki, Munawwar Anjum, Aslam Gill, Bashir Riaz, Makhddom Usman, Azizur Rehman Chan and others attended the cake-cutting ceremony in which prayers were offered for the slain party head and her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Zardari said Ms Bhutto had been advised against attending the Rawalpindi public meeting as an intelligence officer had told her a night before the event about threats to her life, but she asked him to apprehend the potential hit men instead of telling her what to do and what not to do.

He eulogised the BB’s strategy of ousting the army dictator Pervez Musharraf with the help of jiyalas and said that he (Mr Zardari) too could face every challenge provided the workers sided with him.

About political training of Bilawal, he said: “A fish inherently knows how to swim.” He said Bilawal was progressing at his own pace and would take the next generations along.

Meanwhile, the People’s Student Federation (PSF) also organised a ceremony at the party’s Punjab secretariat to celebrate BB’s birthday that was also attended by Musa Khokhar, Hafiz Amer Shehzad, Kamran Warraich, Qamar Khan and others.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2021