LAHORE: The PPP which fielded candidates on almost all national and provincial assembly seats in Lahore but practically the party is consuming its energies on NA-127 from where its chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is contesting.

The PPP leadership did not award ticket to Lahore chapter president Aslam Gill for mere one reason -- focus on Mr Bhutto-Zardari campaign.

“Though Mr Gill had secured over 33,000 votes from a Lahore constituency in 2021 bypoll but the party sacrificed him for Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s campaign,” a PPP leader from Punjab told Dawn on Saturday.

He said practically speaking the PPP was contesting from Lahore’s one NA seat and the rest were mere formalities. “Even the performance of the candidates of other constituencies of Lahore will be judged in terms of their contribution to run the campaign and secure votes for the party chairman,” he said and added not many of the PPP candidates were interested to spend money in their constituencies knowing the ground reality about their vote bank in the city. “Like, Mr Bhutto-Zardari, some other candidates of the party in the city are pinning hopes on the supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) that might vote for PPP in case hurdles are created for its (PTI) candidates in the current prevailing political scenario,” he said and added the PTI supports would like to see the PML-N candidates defeated in Feb 8 polls.

Even Bhutto-Zardari has been making appeals to the PTI youth in his recent rallies, asking them not to waste their vote.

Bilawal only addressed events at NA1-27. He did not go to any other constituency of Lahore for his party candidate. During his visits, he mostly targeted the Sharif brothers asking the Lahorities to vote for him to make prime minister as three-time premier Nawaz Sharif had done nothing for them.

The PPP leadership has also tasked the People’s Youth Federation (PSF) to launch a comprehensive canvassing in NA-127. The PPP social media team has also launched activities in the constituency.

PPP NA-127 digital head Ayesha Chaudhry on Saturday launched an App to send messages to the voters of the constituency. In this constituency, Bilawal is competing against PML-N’s Attaullah Tarar and PTI’s Zahir Abbas Khokhar.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2024