LAHORE: PPP leaders are making a beeline for NA-127, Lahore-XI, from where party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is in the electoral race.

Former president Asif Ali Zardari and former Sindh ministers Sharjeel Memon, Mukesh Kumar Chawala, and Shehla Raza are already in Lahore to take part in the election campaign for their chairman in the constituency, while many more from Sindh and other provinces are expected to join them within days. Experienced politicians, they are joining their efforts to monitor the effectiveness of the election campaign to secure a win for their chairman from the citadel of rivals – PML-N and the PTI.

They held a meeting with local PPP leaders on Tuesday to devise an election strategy and plug loopholes, if any, in the ongoing electioneering. They are also participating in election meetings as well as holding press conferences to keep the voters and media engaged. Mr Zardari, camped in Lahore, is exploring all avenues and meeting people from different walks of life to seek political support for his son.

On Tuesday, he met former Punjab governor Chaudhry Sarwar and won his support for Bilawal Bhutto. A big public meeting in the constituency is also being planned on Jan 21, while Mr Zardari will open an election office in the constituency as well as speak at a rally on Wednesday.

Lahore, like other areas of Punjab, used to be a stronghold of the PPP before the emergence of Nawaz Sharif in the 1985 non-party polls boycotted by the PPP, which has been losing its ground in the province since.

Party’s founder chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had won from Lahore back in the 1970s, while Benazir Bhutto, as party chairperson, returned to the National Assembly from the city in 1988 to become the world’s first Muslim woman prime minister. The party is focusing only on this constituency and not any other candidate of the party in Lahore.

Bilawal is competing against PML-N’s Attaullah Tarar and PTI’s Zaheer Abbas Khokhar. The PML-N decision to launch Mr Tarar against the PPP chairperson, ignoring many strong contenders, has raised many eyebrows because Mr Tarar is from Gujranwala and is considered a weak contestant.

Meanwhile, Shehla Raza, Lahore PPP president Chaudhry Aslam Gill, and Zulfikar Ali Bader addressed a press conference after a meeting with PPP ticket-holders from the city. Shehla Raza emphasized the significance of the upcoming elections, questioning whether the people of Punjab would choose power or ideology this time.

She criticized the ‘35-year’ stronghold of the PML-N in Punjab and its ‘bad’ consequences. She invited the Lahorites to Minhajul Quran Park on Jan 21 for a grand public meeting to be addressed by the central PPP leadership, including Bilawal.

She was confident that Bilawal Bhutto’s leadership would bring about positive changes to Lahore, Punjab, and Pakistan. Mr Bader, in charge of the NA-127 election campaign, called for clean and transparent polls and a level playing field for all political players.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2024