RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Rawalpindi seems to be in a difficult situation as most of its senior workers have started joining the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) before the local government elections in the cantonment areas.

“If the PPP failed to field suitable candidates for the elections, it will face a situation which it saw in the 2013 general elections,” a senior party leader told Dawn.

He said the party discriminated against its workers. The local and national leaders never contacted them except on the occasions of the birth and death anniversaries of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.

He said that in 2013 the party gave tickets to non-popular personalities in the city and cantonment areas and its votes reduced from 50,000 to 6,414 in NA-55, to 4,089 votes in NA-56 and 13,166 in NA-54.

Senior workers leave party accusing leadership of ignoring them

The same situation would appear in the local government elections if the leadership did not take timely steps to mobilise the party workers. He said the PPP failed to hold party elections in the last seven years.

In the past, old guards such as Agha Riazul Islam and former senator Sardar Saleem, who looked after the local government elections, were sidelined. Both had worked with Mr Bhutto, his wife Nusrat Bhutto and daughter Benazir Bhutto. The party failed to benefit from their experience.

As a result, Riazul Islam joined the PML-N two years ago. Sardar Saleem, who ran the party as its president during the tenure of Mr Bhutto, was forced to stay at home, he said.

On Sunday, Babu Idrees, one of the old and prominent leaders of the PPP in the cantonment areas, joined the PTI and would contest elections from the area. “I left the PPP after 37 years because its leadership ignored the workers,” Mr Idrees told Dawn.

He said the PPP was being run by feudal lords from Sindh. “After the assassination of Ms Bhutto, Asif Zardari left the party workers in Punjab at the mercy of Manzoor Watto who formed his own group,” he said.

Former PPP City president and Sardar Naseem said the party lost its stronghold due to the poor policies of its leadership. He said the workers were cold-shouldered during the five-year tenure of the PPP in Islamabad.

The party failed to provide any benefit to its workers in the garrison city from 2008 to 2013. He said the PPP leadership should wake up and give respect to the workers if it wanted to get better results in the forthcoming elections.

When contacted, PPP City spokesman Shujaat Haider Naqvi said the switching of loyalties by a few workers would not affect the party. He said the PPP had more than enough people who can contest the elections in the cantonment areas.

In reply to a question, he said the party would soon announce its policy for the elections in the cantonments.

Published in Dawn March 24th, 2015

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