LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan has said that the PPP has not paid full attention to Punjab and this negligence should be acknowledged.

Addressing a rally organised to mark the 58th Foundation Day of the party here on Sunday, he said the PPP leadership continues to neglect Punjab though he had been telling the PPP parliamentarians from Sindh to pay attention to Punjab as well, for it would strengthen the party to claim the federal government.

He, however, lamented that the party was just focusing on Sindh at the cost of Punjab. He suggested that Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari should form a 15-member self-accountability committee to look out for gaps in the political strategy and address the same.

Wants Bilawal to form ‘self-accountability’ committee

He recalled that the party had just 17 MNAs in 1997 but it would give such a tough time to then prime minister Nawaz Sharif that he would avoid attending the National Assembly session. He said Imran Khan made a mistake by resigning from the assemblies and leaving the forum open for the government.

Imtiaz Safdar Warraich said Bhutto laid the foundation of the PPP in Lahore with the slogan of roti, kapra aur makaan for the workers, farmers and the poor and gave the country a unanimous constitution. He said there was no vote of the common man, Bhutto put into practice the one-man-one-vote system.

Faisal Mir said the people who fought against Ayub Martial Law, Zia and Musharraf were heroes of the party. He said the Jiyalas of Lahore are still competing with the PML-N and PTI. He claimed that at least 5,000 candidates would be fielded in all constituencies of Lahore in the forthcoming local body elections.

Zahid Zulfiqar, Shahida Jabeen and Arif Khan said the party must be freed from hypocrites and Pakistan must be freed from the ‘dark forces of the past’.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2025