Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab President Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo has said that he has advised PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to establish his team immediately for success in the 2018 elections and place focus on “maximum stay rather than visits in Punjab”.
“I told Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and former president Asif Ali Zardari that the position PTI is enjoying in Punjab is due to its Chairman Imran Khan and not their provincial president. Likewise, the position that PPP holds in Punjab is not due to its provincial president,” Wattoo said Thursday.
Even then, he said, he had presented his resignation to the party’s leadership after PPP’s failure in the 2013 elections and after his party’s dismal returns in local bodies elections.
He said that accepting his resignation or otherwise was the discretion of the party’s leadership.
Responding to a question, Wattoo said that he has told the party leadership that general elections are going to be held in 2018 and the election campaign will start in 2017, which means that Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has one year to form his team and reinvigorate the party in Punjab.
He said that he was appointed president of PPP Punjab a mere six months before the 2013 general elections.
“I was minister of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan at that time. I had very little time before the general elections to play an effective role in the elections. Still, I offered my resignation after the polls and then again after we did not perform well in local government elections,” Wattoo said, and added that “political offices are trust of party and sticking to them come what may is not the honourable thing to do”.
“I have advised Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in party meetings to restore the real power of the party. PPP can be re-organised through tough opposition to PML-N. Whether my recommendations are implemented or not is the discretion of the party’s leadership.”
About his meeting with Bilawal on Thursday, he said that they had discussed the upcoming public meeting in Rahim Yar Khan on March 26. “We also exchanged views with reference to arrangements for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s death anniversary on April 4,” he said.