LAHORE - A good number of PPP leaders and workers gathered at the Cavalry Ground graveyard on Wednesday to participate in Quran Khawani arranged there in connection with first death anniversary of the slain Governor Salmaan Taseer.  Besides members of the Taseer family, PPP’s central Punjab President, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Opposition Leader, Raja Raiz, MPA Farooq Yousuf Ghurki and Haeezur Rehman Malik, the former political secretary to Salmaan Taseer were prominent among others.
Dua for the departed soul was held after the Quran Khawani. Earlier, the PPP leaders laid a floral wreath on the grave of late Taseer. The Civil Society Netework, an NGO, also organised a candle vigil at Liberty crossing, in Gulberg, to pay homage to the late governor. Shehryar Taseer, Shaher Bano, Najam Sethi, Jognoo Mohsin, I.A Rehman, Irfan Mufti, Saleema Hashmi, Faiza Malik, Sajida Mir, Sagheera Islam and Najmi Saleem were among other members of the civil society who gathered on the occasion.  
It is pertinent to mention here that no ceremony was held at the Governor’s House here to mark Salman’s death anniversary. When Opposition Leader Raja Riaz was quizzed on the floor of the Punjab Assembly  to explain why Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa was reluctant to hold a ceremony in remembrance of late Taseer, he said the question should be asked from him.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Assembly offered fateha for the departed soul of slain Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer on the occasion of his first death anniversary.  Some PML-N members, however, abstained from the prayer, as they did not raise their hands, showing thereby that they were not part of the ritual. To pay tributes to late Salmaan Taseer, PPP’s Parliamentary Leader in Punjab Assembly, Maj (R) Zulfiqar Gondal commended the services rendered  by the slain governor.