OKARA: Friday’s Kissan Tractor-Trolley (KTT) march by the People’s Party was an impressive show after the general elections of 2008 as the party performed badly in Okara district (once known as ‘mini-Larkana’) as no electable was ready to take party ticket in subsequent ballots.

During the last (2018) general elections, PPP’s National and Punjab Assembly candidates could bag 3,200 votes.

Now as the party leadership has decided to reach masses, its march attracted workers in the presence of Raja Pervaiz Ashraf , Syed Hasan Murtaza, Shahzad Saeed Cheema and other local leaders.

Women’s participation led by women’s wing president Fauzia Ranjha was also encouraging.

Former minister Rana Ikram Rabbani, who rejoined the party after calling on Bilawal last year, worked hard for the march success as he was warmly welcomed by ‘jialas’.

Another party leader Chaudhry Sajjadul Hasan also put up a lot of effort to revive the party.

Speaking to participants, PPP Central Punjab President and former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said farmers and agriculturists were the backbone of our agriculture-based country but the ruling PTI had completely failed to provide them with farm inputs.

He said currently farmers were not getting urea fertiliser as a few weeks back during the cultivation of maize crop season, DAP fertiliser was not available in the market.

PPP Sahiwal President Chaudhry Muhammad Zaki, Pakpattan President Humayun Zafar Bodla, divisional president Ghulam Farid Kathia, former MNA Rai Ghulam Mujtaba Kharal, former provincial minister Rana Ikram Rabbani, provincial information secretary Shahzad Saeed Cheema and office bearers of the PLF, PPP labour wing, PSF, and Kissan wing were present.

Mr Ashraf said a new mafia surfaced in the country like the sugar mafia and at all cost, this emerging fertiliser mafia must be crushed for the future of the agriculture and economy of the country.

He urged the public and farmers to take to the streets on the call of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Jan 24 at divisional headquarters across the country to protest against the government.

The party was starting a long march on Feb 27 from Mazar-i-Quaid in Karachi to Islamabad to oust Imran-led government, he said.

Later, the PPP leaders reached Karmanwala Sharif to offer condolences to provincial minister Samsam Bokhari on the demise of his younger brother Pir Tayyab Ali Bokhari.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2022