GUJRAT: Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asked the party’s Gujranwala division chapter to approach former lawmakers of the party in the region who joined other parties after the PPP lost its popularity in the central Punjab.

Reliable sources in the party told Dawn that Bilawal was pleased with the party’s rank and file in the region after the Dec 12 successful workers convention in Gujranwala city, considered a strong bastion of the PML-N.

They said the show was successful since workers brought from seven districts of the region did not leave the venue though Bilawal reached there three hours after the given schedule.

“They left after listening to the complete speech of Bilawal,” a party source said.Moreover, they said that party’s decision of holding the maiden political event in PML-N’s stronghold was itself a bold approach and the chairman appreciated the central Punjab and Gujranwala region chapters following the workers convention at the Ghulam Hussain Park.

It is learnt that the PPP chairman has asked the local cadres to contact those lawmakers who had deserted the party during the last one decade as party had clinched National and Punjab Assembly seats from Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Narowal and Sialkot districts in 2008 elections.

Most of these former lawmakers either joined the PML-N or the PTI after party lost its strong vote bank in the central Punjab.

Former federal minister of PPP from Gujranwala Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and ex MNA Nadeem Afzal Chan of Malakwal (Mandi Bahauddin) who had contested the 2018 elections as PTI nominees, have already returned to the PPP folds whereas another former federal minister of PPP from Mandi Bahauddin, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, who too contested the NA election from the PTI platform in 2018 has also left Imran Khan’s party.

It is learnt that the PPP chairman has asked the party cadres to approach electables in the region in the wake of a crackdown on PTI men as well as possible outcome of seat adjustment between the PML-N and PML-Q.

An official of Gujrat PPP district chapter said that the party leadership had also been advised to avoid extending unconditional support to the scions of PML-Q chief Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain in Gujrat and suggested that ex-MNA Sameena Pagganwala and her spouse Mian Fakhar Pagganwala should be fielded as candidates for NA-64 and PP-31 (Gujrat city), respectively. “The couple is striving hard to reactivate the party workers and supporters in the district by organising various events,” he said.

PPP’s Fakhar Pagganwala has already announced to contest elections from PP-31 and has sought a two-day tour of party chairman Bilawal Bhutto to Gujrat.

It is learnt that the party chairman may invite the Pagganwalas for a meeting in Islamabad next week to discuss the future politics in the region.

Sources in the PML-Q have claimed that the party chief may seek support of PPP for his scions Shafay Hussain and Salik Hussain in Gujrat from co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2023