HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that he is going to Lahore to focus on Punjab and the rest of Pakistan because if he doesn’t stop his opponents there, they will keep “taking turns”.

He delivered a brief speech before party workers at the residence of his trusted friend Ghulam Qadir Marri in Tando Allahyar on Thursday where he had an overnight stay. Later, Mr Zardari left for Nawabshah to attend the funeral of his cousin and friend Raees Aftab Ahmed Zardari.

“I am going to visit entire Pakistan and I am going to sit in Lahore and pitch in tents there [Lahore],” the PPP leader said in his two-minute speech. “We will face them there,” he said without mentioning whether he meant the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf or the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

“Until we face them there [in Punjab] or stop them, they will be colluding with each other and taking turns one after the other [to assume power] but (for us) both are same,” he said.

He said: “People’s (awami) battle will be fought against them and finally masses will emerge victorious.”

Mr Zardari said that Benazir Bhutto had taught her children to always serve masses and the poor. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Aseefa Bhutto would serve people as their future leaders, he said.

Talking to journalists, the PPP co-chairman said that time had come to launch a massive struggle against the federal government.

He said that Benazir Bhutto had a vision to serve the poor people of the country and today the PPP leadership was also making efforts to redress masses’ grievances.

He said that his party was implementing the vision of Benazir Bhutto and added that late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto also had always given priority to resolving peoples’ problems.

He said that his party’s philosophy was service of people without any discrimination and ensuring development works, including construction of roads and healthcare and educational institutions.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2021