LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has assured Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari of its full support in the National Assembly’s constituency NA-127 (Lahore-XI) from where the PPP chairman is contesting the Feb 8 election. The assurance came during a visit of Mr Bhutto-Zardari to the PAT secretariat here on Friday.

Talks between the two parties were already going on for the last some weeks to seek PAT support and former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and PPP general secretary Nayyer Hussain Bukhari held a detailed discussion on the issue a few days ago.

PAT general secretary Khurram Nawaz Gandapur assured the PPP chairman that the support promise would not be hollow rather it would be visible to all as the party would also hold an election meeting in the latter’s favour in the constituency.

It is believed that PAT has a considerable vote-bank in the constituency as its founder, Dr Tahirul Qadri, had claimed the seat back in 2002.

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Earlier, Mr Bhutto-Zardari was received by senior PAT leadership, including Mr Gandapur, Raja Zahid and Nurullah Siddiqui. He laid a floral wreath at the monument of the PAT workers who had been shot dead in a police raid on the party’s secretariat in Model Town back in June 2014.

He said that whoever was responsible for the 2014 tragedy should be punished. He also filled up a form for life membership of Tehreek Minhaj-ul-Quran, the parent body of PAT, and recalled that his mother too was a life member of Minhaj-ul-Quran and that he was restoring these contacts by following in her footsteps.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2024