KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party’s chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will be the party’s future national assembly member from Lyari, a PPP stronghold.

“Bilawal is your future MNA and despite being away he is keenly monitoring developments in Lyari,” President Asif Ali Zardari said while speaking to former party MNAs and activists from the area at the Bilawal House on Monday.

The president was also given a briefing on the three-and-a-half-year work under the Lyari Development Package.

The slain PPP chairperson and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari contested polls from Lyari.

According to sources, President Zardari asked National Database and Registration Authority officials to devise a programme for Bilawal Bhutto for his interaction with the people of Lyari so that he could track events and developments in the area from London.

The president said that PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto was keen to see Lyari become a thriving and vibrant place, free from acrimony and criminals, the sources added.

In the meeting with some notables of Lyari, President Zardari said that he would meet them fortnightly and take party workers on board on decisions.

He promised to provide them job opportunities and bring Lyari on a par with other parts of the city by building better roads, improving sewerage, water supply, health, education and power supply situation.

He also assured the notables of Lyari that funds would be provided for the development of sports facilities, particularly football and boxing.

He urged them to play their role in building bridges of understanding and achieving the objective of peace and stability across the province.

Earlier, President Zardari presided over a meeting at the Bilawal House and reviewed the progress pertaining to the ongoing development projects under the Lyari package.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, provincial ministers, lawmakers from Lyari and officials attended the meeting.

The meeting reviewed progress on projects, including roads, sewerage, Benazir Bhutto Medical University, flyovers and water supply schemes.

The president was informed that Rs2.8 billion had been spent over the past three years under the Lyari package.