LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: PPP Co-Chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has said that some people are trying to cash in on the current political crisis.

“Some people are holding large public meetings to diminish their pain (on failure of sit-ins) …and some others are trying to take advantage of the political crisis,” he told reporters after a meeting with Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Sirajul Haq at Mansoora, the JI’s headquarters, here on Friday.

It was Mr Zardari’s second visit to Mansoora over the past 40 days. He was accompanied by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other party leaders, including Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Manzoor Wattoo.

The objective of the meeting, Mr Zardari said, was to save the country and the nation and not just the (PML-N) government.

Downplaying the success of the PTI in attracting people to its public meetings, he said that increase in electricity tariff and inflation would definitely invite reaction from the masses.

He stressed the need for doing constructive work collectively instead of indulging in politics of anarchy and regretted that patriotism was not being taught in public meetings these days.

He said that politicians trying to become prime minister would benefit only anti-state elements.

The former president, who despite all odds had completed his five-year term in office through his policy of reconciliation, said that had the policy been adopted in the 1960s and 70s, the East Pakistan tragedy would not have taken place.

He said he believed that even today all problems could be solved, but only through “dialogue, dialogue and dialogue”. The issues being faced by the country cannot be resolved by one party; all political forces will have to join hands for the purpose.

Sirajul Haq said the purpose of the meeting was to shun the politics of acrimony and promote a new democratic culture of accommodating each other.

He regretted that the fruit of democracy could not trickle down to the masses and said there was a need to create a sense of ownership among people. He said the government’s failure to deliver had created distances among political forces.

The JI leader praised the support extended by the PPP to the opposition jirga’s efforts for resolving the dispute between the government and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek.

STAY IN PUNJAB: Mr Zardari will celebrate Eidul Azha in Punjab and stay there for a couple of weeks to reactivate the party, sources in the PPP told Dawn in Islamabad.

They said the former president foresaw possible mid-terms polls and local government elections in Punjab and, therefore, wanted to reorganise the party to secure better results.

“Mr Zadari’s decision to celebrate Eid in Punjab is itself a significant development and he will stay in Lahore even after Eid to discuss a number of issues with the party’s provincial leaders,” PPP’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said. Mr Zardari will also meet leaders of other political parties.

Mr Babar said Mr Zardari believed that local bodies’ elections in Punjab would be held soon and did not rule out the possibility of mid-term polls.

“The entire exercise will be aimed at preparing the party for the next elections. Mr Zardari will look into the party affairs and try to overcome its weaknesses,” he added.

Some PPP leaders in Punjab are said to be ‘unhappy’ with some of the decisions taken by Mr Zardari, particularly the appointment of Mian Manzoor Wattoo as the party’s provincial chief in October 2012.

“During Mr Wattoo’s tenure, the party lost the seats it had won in the 2008 elections,” a senior party leader, who did not want to be named, said.

He said the PPP had won 35 National Assembly seats in Punjab in 2008, but secured only one seat in polls last year. Similarly, it had bagged 80 Punjab Assembly seats in 2008, buy managed to win only one seat in last year’s elections and another in by-election. “We faced the biggest defeat because the party leadership made some mistakes,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 4th , 2014