LAHORE: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has agreed to form an accountability commission in the party on the demand of a number of workers.

“A good number of PPP stalwarts have been facing corruption allegations for several years and the media has labelled us synonymous to corruption. We may not recover from this tag in future elections. Therefore, it is high time that the party leadership declare ‘crusade’ against corruption and corrupt elements in the party,” said a participant of the meeting Mr Bilawal presided over at the Bilawal House here on Wednesday.

The PPP old guard said the party had lost the 2013 general elections primarily on the ‘perception of being a corrupt party’ and not because of power loadshedding.

He said after some break the corruption stories about PPP leaders were again appearing in the media which were tarnishing the party image beyond repair.

Says party is labeled as synonymous to corruption

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf talked about the ‘media trial’ of the PPP leaders saying those raising slogans against corruption and implicating PPP leaders should better present themselves for accountability.

The former premier said that corruption cases against the PPP leaders had been pending for years. “Why they are not decided without delay,” he asked.

Mr Ashraf also recommended Bilawal Bhutto to set up an accountability commission in the party for internal accountability of the leaders. “Appoint some four to six people of integrity for investigation of the alleged corruption charges (on the party men),” he proposed.

Sherry Rehman said: “We never compromised on rights of people and fought against terrorism. Why the PPP is facing terror finance cases? The PPP is a liberal party and will not leave its space among the masses,” she said.

On this Mr Bilawal agreed to form the accountability commission in the party. However, a party leader Dawn spoke to said the matter would be taken up in the Central Executive Committee meeting and such a set up would be evolved with the consensus of its (CEC) members.

Addressing the participants, Bilawal Bhutto said he would start holding public meetings after Eidul Azha. “We all will fight together and overcome the party issues. We will take the PPP to new heights by organising it in each town and village,” the young PPP leader vowed and said the first public meeting will be held in Rahim Yar Khan.

When retired Maj Imtiaz, who was with Benazir Bhutto in the vehicle at the time of attack in Rawalpindi (in 2007), was asked to speak in the meeting, he started crying and could not control his emotions. Bilawal Bhutto went to his seat and hugged him.

Mr Bilawal spent a busy day and held a series of meetings with the notables, sitting and former MNAs and MPAs from south Punjab.

Faryal Talpur, Bakhtawar Zardari, Makhdoom Ahmad Mahmood, Shaukat Basra, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Hina Rabbani Khar, Haider Zaman Qureshi, Natasha Doultana, Mustafa Mahmood, Ghulam Rasool Koreja, Qazi Ahmed Saeed, Ali Akbar Mahmood, Raees Ibrahim Khalil, Khalida Mohsin, Ali Qureshi and Sardar Shahabuddin Khan were also present in the meeting.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2015

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