NAUDERO: The Peoples Party will not leave Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif alone in adversity and at the same time it hopes the latter would “stand by us whenever we fall on hard times”, PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari declared on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion of the 36th death anniversary of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on Saturday, he said: “We faced very tough and difficult situations with courage and commitment because we believed in politics of reconciliation advocated by Benazir Bhutto.”

Mr Zardari urged PTI Chairman Imran Khan to return to parliament because a judicial commission had now been constituted to investigate alleged rigging during the 2013 general elections.

With the return of PTI to parliament, the entire opposition would join hands for making the election commission an independent institution, he added.

The PPP co-chairman called upon the government to take parliament into confidence before taking important decisions.

He said the Muslim world was going through trying times and, as such, infighting would weaken the Ummah.

Mr Zardari said it was unfortunate that the federal government had been resorting to loadshedding for 18 hours in Sindh and paying nothing for its gas.

He said PPP would hold workers’ conventions and meetings of its central executive committee to discuss important issues.

The former president praised workers for sacrificing their lives for the party, recalling that 400 activists had been killed in Karachi alone.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Aitzaz Ahsan, Sardar Yaqoob, Syed Mehdi Shah and Nisar Khuhro also spoke on the occasion.

APP adds: The main function in front of the mausoleum of martyrs of the Bhutto family was cancelled because of bad weather in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2015

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