LAHORE    -    Ahead of a planned rally to be held in Lahore on June 21, the PPP-P President Asif Ali Zardari has called a meeting of party’s ticket holders on Tuesday (Today) at Bilawal House to review the arrange­ments. After a long time, the PPP is planning to hold a rally in Lahore on June 21 to mark the 70th birthday of its slain party leader Benazir Bhutto. 

According to party sourc­es, the meeting would also decide venue of the party gathering though there is already a broader consen­sus over holding the rally at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk. Senior PPP leaders includ­ing Asif Zardari are likely to address the rally. The meet­ing will also discuss the par­ty’s future line of action in Punjab in the wake of PTI’s breakdown following May 9 incidents. Also, Asif Ali Zardari chaired a meeting of the party’s women wing on Monday as Samina Ghurki along with women wing of­fice-bearers presented their performance report. The women wing leaders includ­ing Nargis Khan, Aqila Yusuf, Sakina Chaudhary, Tasneem Chaudhary, Shamshad An­war attended the meeting. Talking to the women lead­ers, Zardari said that PPP’s situation was better today compared to the one in 2018. He said he would set up his camp in Lahore very soon to meet with party men and decisions will be made in favor of party workers. 

Samina Khalid Gharki de­manded that the problems of women in Benazir Income Support Program and Paki­stan Baitul Mal should be solved on a priority basis. Asif Zardari assured party women that he would ar­range their meeting with Shazia Atta Murri regard­ing the issues pertaining to Benazir Income Support Program. He also pledged to solve the problems of the women’s wing on prior­ity basis. The PPP’s women’s wing leaders emphasized on giving preference to work­ers on seats in the National Assembly and Punjab As­sembly. A women leader complained that she been in the party for 50 years, but every time her name was removed from the priority list of women seats. Women leaders have been with the PPP for generations and will continue to be so in future, she added. Separately, for­mer Prime Minister Bena­zir Bhutto Shaheed’s elder daughter Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari visited Lahore Fort on Tuesday, according to PPP sources. Before the arrival of Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, the officers and employ­ees of Walled City were re­stricted to limits of their of­fices. Apart from Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari’s personal security and photographers, only one female officer of the Walled City Author­ity accompanied Bakhtawar during her visit to the Fort. Party sources said that the matter of Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari’s visit to the Lahore Fort was kept secret owing to security reasons.