Ruling out reports of rifts within the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ranks, party’s patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday claimed in a tweet that the party is united.
The announcement is seemingly a snub to some senior leaders of the party who left for London to share their grievances with the young Bhutto against the party’s top leadership, especially the co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
“Anyone claiming otherwise and speaking against the leadership is no friend of the party,” Bilawal tweeted.
Bilawal’s statement on social media comes after the reported differences with his father, Zardari.
On Saturday, PPPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim, former Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza and PPP Karachi President Abdul Qadir Patel reportedly left for London to meet Bilawal Bhutto.
Party stalwart and former home minister Sindh, Zulfiqar Mirza had also fanned the rumours circling in the local media about differences between the top leadership of the PPP.
In an explosive interview to Geo News last week, Mirza had claimed the PPP was being run as ‘a one-man show’.
“Asif Ali Zardari is running the Sindh provincial government like his personal business,” he said, while speaking in a TV talk show.
Mirza had also claimed during the interview that some ‘cronies’ of Zardari wanted to keep Bilawal away from politics.
“All this was against the principles of Benazir Bhutto and I believe Bilawal feels the same way,” he said.
The outspoken politician accused the PPP leadership of also personally benefiting from such policies.
The PPP chairman also used a Latin phrase on Twitter, “Et tu Brutus?” – an expression often used to question a good friend’s loyalty.
There were also reports of differences between Amin Fahim and Zardari. Both the leaders had a series of meetings in Karachi and Larkana. Later, Amin Fahim’s son, Makhdoom Jameel ul Zaman was given full authority and an extra portfolio of relief and rehabilitation in the Sindh government and some of his people were also accommodated in various departments in Sindh. Their issues, however, have not yet been resolved.
“Although Fahim was a member of PPP parliamentary board which allotted Senate ticket to party members a few days ago, he was not present at the meeting because of his grievances with the party leadership,” sources said.
Despite repeated attempts, members from PPP could not be reached for a response. The party’s provincial spokesperson Waqar Mehdi denied reports of differences between PPP leaders and said he had no idea about a delegation leaving for London.