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LARKANA: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) appears to have decided to demonstrate its popularity on Tuesday when the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto will be observed in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto.
President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on Monday, visited the mausoleum of the Bhutto family and went to the camp office of President’s House in Naudero.
A group of PPP workers from Jafferabad and Nasirabad districts were seen protesting outside the mausoleum against PPP’s Balochistan chief Sadik Umrani and another group of youths led by Basheer Chandio against denial of appointment to 100 candidates selected for police in 2008.
Caravans of PPP workers and supporters have started arriving from various parts of the country to attend a public meeting which will be the main feature of the anniversary program.
Reception camps have been set up in Larkana, Naudero and Ratodero by the People’s Youth Wing.
A leader of the Sindh People’s Students Federation said a caravan of 200 buses had arrived from Gilgit.
President Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other PPP leaders will address the public meeting for which a 36-acre area has been prepared.
A 100-foot long stage has been built with barbed wires placed around it.
Two large screens have been installed to telecast the proceedings.
About 6,500 personnel of police, Rangers and reserve police will be on duty to maintain security.
Walkthrough gates have been installed at the two main entrances to the ground.
PPP Larkana district general secretary Abdul Fatah Bhutto said there would be no activity at the president’s camp office on Tuesday and a meeting of PPP’s central executive committee scheduled for the day had been put off till Wednesday.
Former ambassador Khursheed Junejo, who is a member of the mazar committee, said the anniversary programme would begin at 1pm and conclude at 5.20pm, the time Ms Bhutto was assassinated, with two minutes of silence after the president’s speech.
A group of activists of People’s Youth Organisation led by Aajiz Dhamraho, that had left the Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum in Karachi on bicycles on December 21, arrived in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on Monday.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Home Minister Manzoor Wasan and Local Bodies Minister Agha Siraj reviewed arrangements made for the occasion.
The home minister said security arrangements would include aerial surveillance.
Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro said a press conference that Tuesday would be a public holiday in the province and two months’ remission had been granted to 757 prisoners.
