RAWALPINDI, June 21: Visibly shocked and dismayed at the ouster of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, PPP workers stood united while celebrating the 59th birth anniversary of the slain party chairperson Benazir Bhutto near Liaquat Bagh on Thursday.

Though Rawalpindi chapter of the PPP has been observing the birth anniversary of Ms Bhutto for many years, Thursday’s activity posed a complete different look with workers worried and confused about the future of the party.

Mujtaba Ali, 48, a dissident jiyala, who switched over to establishing a business after quitting active political activities after the assassination of Ms Bhutto in 2007, had come to Liaquat Bagh to donate blood at the birth anniversary of Ms Bhutto.

Showing anger over the disqualification of Mr Gilani, he said the threat to his party and ‘discriminatory’ treatment towards the government had forced him once again to join hands with the party workers.

“After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the subsequent failure of the government to expose her killers, I used to blame my own party. But after the ouster of Yousuf Raza Gilani, I have realised that the PPP is fighting a war of its existence,” Mr Ali told this reporter when asked about his return to active politics. Over 400 party workers donated blood on the occasion.

“I am quite happy today that the city chapter of PPP is all united and I see faces that had disappeared since the assassination of Ms Bhutto. Our party performs the best in crises and we are faced with a critical situation these days,” senior PPP worker and member central executive committee of the party Sultan Mehmmod Qazi told this reporter.

“You can’t imagine how much the party is hurt by the disqualification of Mr Gilani. For us this is the third tragedy after the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and assassination of Ms Bhutto,” Mr Qazi commented.

The birth anniversary was also overwhelmed by grief over the death of PPP MNA Fauzia Wahab. The party confined the activity to blood collection only and unlike the past there was no food distribution this time.