RAWALPINDI: Upon realising its falling popularity, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has launched a campaign to pacify its disgruntled workers before the local government elections.

In this regard, Sindh Assembly deputy speaker Syeda Shehla Raza has been assigned the task to visit the houses of PPP workers in the city who have been angry with the leadership of the party for many years.

During the last two days, Ms Raza visited dozens of party workers and asked them to restart work for the revival of the party.

However, her visit was not welcomed by the PPP Rawalpindi chapter office-bearers as they said they were not taken on board about the move.

In the 2013 general elections, the PPP allotted tickets to non-popular people in the city. As a result, it could bag only 6414 votes in NA-55, 4089 votes in NA-56 and 13166 votes in NA-54. The situation remained almost unchanged in the cantonment board elections in which the PPP failed to get a single seat.

Talking to Dawn, Ms Shehla Raza said she did not visit the workers for any election campaign but went to their houses to offer fateha for their dear and near ones who passed away recently.

Party’s local office-bearers say they were not taken on board about Shehla Raza’s visit to garrison city

She cautiously remarked: “I have no agenda but the main purpose of my visit is to meet old and loyal party workers to make them realise that the senior party workers were with them and always took care of them.”

She said party workers also visited her house in Karachi frequently and she felt it necessary to meet them when she was in Islamabad.

However, she dispelled the impression that it was a campaign for party mobilisation for the local government elections or she was preparing a report for the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to inform him about the resentment among old workers against the central leadership.

On the other hand, a senior PPP leader insisted that the party had started the campaign to mobilise the workers and bring those people to the front who did not have a clean record.

But he said the campaign was limited to former candidates Khalid Nawaz Bobi and Babar Jadoon’s areas, saying these two had no public support either in the past or at present. Some people running the party’s co-chairman office in Islamabad also tried to get themselves nominated for the local chapter, he added.

He said the party workers in the garrison city were against former Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Dr Babar Awan and the present leadership of Rawalpindi and Punjab for doing nothing for them when the PPP was in power for five years.

When contacted, PPP City president Amir Fida Paracha said he was not aware of the presence of the Sindh assembly deputy speaker in the city. “Neither we were invited nor we went to welcome her in the garrison city.”

He said the party seniors should visit the workers in routine instead of occasionally. He said other party leaders should also visit the city to boost the morale of the workers.

But PPP City spokesman Shujaat Haider Naqvi said the deputy speaker should have consulted the party’s local organisation before coming to the city. He said the party should take the local leadership on board so that they can understand the real problems faced by the workers.

Shahzad Pasha, an old party activist from Dhoke Ratta, told Dawn that he and other workers were feeling proud after Ms Raza visited their houses.

He said on their complaints she assured the workers that she would raise their problems with the party chairman and co-chairman.

Jamil Qureshi, another old PPP worker, said after the visit of the deputy speaker to his house, he had set aside all his differences and was ready to work for the party.

Published in Dawn, September 21st , 2015

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