GUJRAT: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will speak to a rally of party supporters in Wazirabad city before reaching the Gujranwala public meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) scheduled to be held at Jinnah Stadium on Oct 16.

The PPP has decided the route of the party chairman to reach Gujranwala from Islamabad during which the party workers from Gujjar Khan, Jhelum and Lalamusa are scheduled to join his convoy.

PPP Punjab vice president Ijaz Samman who is also a party candidate for the by-polls from Wazirabad city’s PP-51, told Dawn on Sunday that the party had decided to bring chairman to Gujranwala rally from the federal capital so that he could speak to the party supporters in Wazirabad city before reaching the venue for the PDM public meeting.

He said the party workers from across the districts and towns along GT Road between Islamabad and Gujranwala would join their leader but the chairman would only deliver a speech in Wazirabad and then at the PDM rally.

PPP Punjab president Qamar Zaman Kaira chaired a meeting of party officials and former lawmakers from Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts as well as Wazirabad city at Kaira public secretariat in Lalamusa during which the planning to accord a warm welcome to the party chairman was made.

Mr Kaira told the participants that the party workers from Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts would gather along GT Road in Lalamusa to welcome the chairman and then they all would join the convoy for Gujranwala rally.

Former MNA Sameena Fakhar Pagganwala, ex-MPA Asif Basheer Bhagat, Dr Zahid Zaheer, Zahid Saleemi and others were also among the participants.Meanwhile, the PDM also organised a workers convention of its component parties at Kotla Arab Ali Khan Town of Gujrat where PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said the PDM was not against the armed forces but its struggle was aimed at ending the army’s interference in politics and limiting it to the constitutional role and defending the country borders as all the institutions must remain within their constitutional domains.

He said the PPP did not believe in waging armed struggle against the injustices in Pakistan but in political and peaceful struggle.

Meanwhile, PDM banners were removed from Gujranwala by the local administration on Sunday.

ADC Ali Akbar told Geo TV that there was a three-month ban on banners.

PML-N MPA Tufeeq Butt said only PDM banners were being removed. He said they were ready yo pay local tax on erecting banners, if any.

A video showed that banners by local PTI leaders hailing development works in their areas were still intact in some city localities.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2020