LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) used the Iqbal Day to informally launch its election campaign in the Township area here on Thursday.

Youth and women also joined the event organised on Peco Road, which was addressed by Aslam Gill, Faisal Mir and Rana Rizwan.

The participants raised slogans like ‘prime minister Bilawal Bhutto’, ‘our valiance Zardari’, and ‘hunter of tigers, Zardari’. They also danced to the tune of party songs.

Mr Gill said the enthusiasm of the youth warmed up all the participants and turned the cake-cutting ceremony on Allama Iqbal’s birthday into an election meeting of the PPP.

He said if Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had materialised Iqbal’s dream of a Muslim state into Pakistan, Quaid-i-Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto advanced the agenda of the two great leaders about the homeland of the Muslims.

He also recalled Benazir Bhutto’s struggle for democracy and against military dictators Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Mir lamented that the rival party’s MNA elected from the area was unknown for the voters though the National Assembly completed its five-year term because being a ‘selected’ one the MNA never visited the constituency after the 2018 elections.

He said the PML-N’s ‘selected’ prime minister would be sent back to London after February 2024 elections, while the PPP would also appoint its chief minister in Punjab, thanks to the political tactics of Asif Ali Zardari.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2023