PESHAWAR, Oct 16: Over 400 workers of the Pakistan People’s Party workers left on Tuesday for Karachi by buses to welcome party chairperson Benazir Bhutto on her arrival at Quaid-i-Azam International Airport on Thursday.

They were seen off by the PPP’s divisional chief Syed Zahir Ali Shah, former Peshawar PPP presidents Saeed Ahmed Khan and Zulfiqar Afghani and a large number of workers near Hashtnagri Chowk on GT Road. They chanted slogans against what they termed highhandedness of the Sindh chief minister against PPP workers.

The motorcade was scheduled to leave the city at 4pm but it was delayed after the sudden death of former NWFP chief minister Arbab Jehangir Khan, father of provincial PPP information secretary Arbab Alamgir Khan. The small caravan left in the evening to join the main motorcade in Dera Ismail Khan.

Speaking on the occasion, Saeed Khan said 300 party workers would leave for Karachi via Multan late in the night. He said he and other office-bearers would fly on Wednesday.

He said PPP workers had braved the dictatorship of Gen Ziaul Haq and they could challenge the anti-democratic measures of the Sindh government.

Zahir Shah also criticised the Sindh government’s measures aiming at sabotaging peaceful activities of the PPP in Karachi and other parts of the province.

He said armed attacks on PPP workers in rural areas of Sindh had exposed the undemocratic face of the provincial government.

He said the PPP believed in peaceful political struggle, while the rulers lacking people’s support had become intolerant.

He said the party had advised its district organisations to arrange separate motorcades to leave for Karachi.

He said the caravan of the city organisation had left for D.I. Khan; it would enter Punjab in the night and reach Sindh on Wednesday.