ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will celebrate what would have been his mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s, 64th birthday on June 21 at the Naudero House in Larkana.

According to an official announcement made by the party’s media office on Saturday, all district chapters of the party will hold celebratory programmes at the district headquarters and cut birthday cakes.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari will also cut a birthday cake at the Naudero House and host an Iftar party for PPP leaders and workers in Larkana. He will also visit her grave.

PPP general secretary Nayyar Hussain Bokhari said the PPP organised blood donation camps in connection with Ms Bhutto’s birthday each year but had departed from tradition this year because of Ramazan.

He said the party held meetings of its central executive committee (CEC) on the death anniversaries of Ms Bhutto in December and her father, the late former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in April each year. CEC meetings were not held on the birth anniversaries of party leaders, he clarified.

Mr Bokhari denied rumours that the party had decided to keep PPP co-chairperson Asif Zardari away from politics so as to provide his son an opportunity to run party affairs independently. He said Mr Zardari was abroad for a health check, but added that he might return to the country for Eid.

The PPP general secretary said Mr Bhutto-Zardari had presided over some important meetings in Islamabad and Peshawar, in which the party had taken some important decisions regarding their internal affairs.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2017