LGs to empower people at grass-root level: Zardari

LAHORE: Former president Asif Ali Zardari has felicitated all those who have won in the first phase of local government (LG) elections in Sindh and Punjab, calling it an important and indispensable step forward towards empowering people at grass-roots level.
“I felicitate the PPP candidates who won the LG polls and demonstrated yet again that the party is still buoyant and resilient,” said Zardari in a statement on Sunday.
It is hoped that with the completion of the next phases of LG polls in the two provinces, power would be genuinely transferred to the elected representatives at the grass-roots level, as an essential ingredient of democracy, he said.
Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar quoted the former president as saying that empowering people is much more than merely conducting local government elections. That means creation of a vast body of new stakeholders in the democratic system that would strengthen democracy itself. The larger the stakeholders the stronger would be democracy and democratic institutions, he added.
Zardari also expressed grief at the death of more than a dozen people in an armed clash between rival supporters in Khairpur, Faisalabad and other parts of the country. He said through better security measures, these unfortunate incidents could have been avoided.
Zardari asked the party cadres in Sindh and Punjab to get ready for the second and third phases of LG polls. He asked the newly-elected local representatives to serve masses, who have elected them.