LARKANA: PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said if fair and free elections were held and a level playing field was given, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) would remain victorious.

He was addressing the last public meeting of his party’s election campaign at Peoples Stadium here on Tuesday night. Mr Bhutto-Zardari himself is contesting elections on a Larkana National Assembly seat. He led an impressive rally in Karachi a day before and staged public meetings in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and other parts of Sindh.

He said old politicians’ policy of hatred and divide had put the country in danger, adding that personal enmity and rigidity of such politicians had harmed federation, economy and democracy.

The PPP chairman brushed aside the claims of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that it was going to win the polls, adding that the reality on the ground was different as Nawaz Sharif was not getting much support in Lahore so much so that he could not even hold a public meeting in Multan.

Whereas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said, Nawaz Sharif was losing even his own seat and in Balochistan, too, the PPP was ahead of the PML-N.

He praised the people of Sindh for their unshakable support to the PPP. He said he would see the similar results as of local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad where PPP-backed mayors had won.

He repeated his campaign promises that if voted to power he would double people’s salaries, giving them 300 units of free solar electricity and regularise kutchi abadies in the country.

He claimed that only the PPP would be capable of bringing in political and economic stability in the country.

To find your constituency and location of your polling booth, SMS your NIC number (no spaces) to 8300. Once you know your constituency, visit the ECP website here for candidates.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2024