LARKANA: PPP Chai­r­­man Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has clai­med that returning officers have allotted wrong electoral symbols to his party’s candidates in Pun­jab “under pressure from PML-N”.

Talking to the media on Monday, he criticised the former ruling party and said “it had lost its democratic stature and did not want to contest politically”.

The PPP leader vowed to take the matter to the Election Commission and courts and said PML-N wants to contest elections “by keeping its opponents out of the ground”.

PPP has claimed that the ECP has not allotted the party’s symbol of ‘arr­ow’ to seven of its national and provincial assembly candidates in Punjab.

Laments PPP candidates in Punjab not allotted ‘arrow’

However, Mr Bhutto-Zardari added that his party “would continue to fight” just like it did in the elections of 1992, 1997, 2013 and 2018.

The PPP leader once again expressed hope that elections will be held on February 8 and shared the details of his whirlwind tours of different cities in connection with the election campaign.

Continuing with his criticism of the political system, the PPP leader said the present model of development has failed as it only focused on serving the elites. “PPP wants to invest in people for better impact.”

PPP is the only option to “pull the country out of the current economic crisis”, the PPP leader said as he urged voters to “infl­ict a defeat on the lion with the symbol of arrow”.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari pledged to implement mega infrastructure projects and assured the participants that his party’s government would establish a university and cardiovascular hospital in Shahdadkot along with plans for the rehabilitation of flood victims.

Regarding the burden on the exchequer, the PPP leader said 17 identical ministries were simultaneously working in the centre and provinces. By devolving them to provinces, Rs300 billion could be saved.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2024