Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said he knows well about the problems of Lyari, and his party will initiate steps to resolve them under his supervision.
He stated this late on Friday night as he addressed workers and supporters of the PPP at the central election office of his party in Lyari.
His arrival in the city from Lahore was delayed by several hours as his flight could not take off timely due to bad weather. Owing to his much-delayed arrival in Karachi, the PPP had to cancel a rally it had planned in the city.
The rally was to be led by Bilawal from the Karachi airport, as according to the original plan, the PPP chairman was to address workers and supporters of his party at many places all along the route of the rally from the airport to Bilawal House. After the idea of rally was dropped, Bilawal addressed party’s workers late on Friday only in Lyari and Bilawal House Chowrangi.
While addressing the supporters who had gathered in Lyari, Bilawal expressed firm optimism that the people would repeat the known history of the area and would vote in favour of the “arrow” (the electoral symbol of the PPP).
He said that he was contesting the first election of his life from the area where he was born. Bilawal said that he had kicked off his electioneering campaign from Lyari and once again he came back there to be present among the people.
He said the option of desalination of sea water would be exercised to end the issue of water supply in Lyari on a permanent basis. He said that the PPP was the only political party of the country that would plead the case of the poor people of the country.
Later, addressing the party’s workers at the Bilawal House Chowrangi, he said his party would emerge victorious in the upcoming general elections in the entire country.
He said the people of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (from where he arrived after conducting his election campaign) had pronounced their verdict in favour of the PPP. “Our contest is with hunger, poverty, unemployment, terrorism, and with your problems,” he said.
He said that the founder of the PPP, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had done reforms in the agriculture sector and distributed farm land among the poor peasants. He said that Bhutto had done social justice through reforms in governance. “No other party has ever done such a move,” he said.
“The PPP has always served the masses and even now we want such a society where there should be social justice and no exploitation,” he said.
He said the PPP’s history had showed that the party had always served the masses, it resolved the problems of the people, laid down lives for democracy, but it never bowed down its head.
He said that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had been hanged, and Asif Ali Zardari had been imprisoned for eleven years, as they had always done struggle to save Pakistan and even continued with this struggle in the present day.
He said the PPP had failed to generate satisfactory results in previous general elections in 2013 as at that time terrorism and extremism was at its peak, while people did not get ample job opportunities. “But this never means that the relationship between the masses and the party has been fractured,” he said.
“Our opponents whenever they comment on the Peoples Party should keep in mind that the party during the past had endured several such grim tests through courage, commitment, and matured thinking. We still have the courage and strength to surprise our opponents,” he said.
