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LAHORE:
Seeking to reclaim its political prominence in a city where it has gradually disappeared, the Lahore chapter of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has announced a ‘Kashmir Bana Ga Pakistan’ rally on February 1.
The party is presenting the rally as both a demonstration of its political presence in the provincial capital and an attempt to revive the party’s fortunes in Punjab.
The rally, which will be held against a backdrop that party leaders privately diagnose as a persistent political vacuum, is seen as an effort to test the political space in Lahore, a city long seen as crucial to any serious comeback in the province.
For the PPP, whose organizational footprint in Punjab has continued to diminish over the years, this event marks a new attempt to re-insert itself into the political debate.
Once a dominant force, the PPP’s decline in Punjab has been gradual but pronounced, leaving the party dependent on only a handful of voters.
Among the factors contributing to this erosion, party members highlight opportunistic decision-making, the absence of lasting leadership in the province and an organizational drift that has emptied its presence at the base.
Although the party’s central leadership, the Bhutto-Zardari clan, has made repeated visits to Punjab, these have not resulted in significant political gains. Meanwhile, local leaders gradually lost momentum and found themselves on the margins. At times, figures such as the PPP’s former parliamentary leader in Punjab, Hasan Murtaza, burst onto the airwaves with pointed and sometimes witty interventions, but despite the party’s visibility, these efforts produced few tangible results.
The party recently underwent a reorganization in Punjab, attracting new faces to leadership positions at the grassroots level. Among the changes, the most significant occurred in Lahore, where fiery leader Faisal Mir took the reins.
This decision carried additional weight given the symbolic and strategic importance of Lahore as a potential launching pad for a broader renaissance.
According to party members, Faisal Mir, who had been waiting for a significant organizational role for several years, was keen to send a strong message within the party and beyond.
An event was therefore planned, but with the PPP currently maintaining a delicate political understanding with the PML-N, a neutral issue was chosen as the theme of the gathering.
As part of the mobilization campaign, the PPP Lahore Division also conducted an awareness campaign for the Kashmir Bachao rally, scheduled for February 1. It was announced that the PPP from Lahore would organize the Nasir Bagh rally in the Punjab Assembly. Speaking on the occasion, Faisal Mir said that all wings of the PPP were mobilized to ensure the success of the February 1 Kashmir rally.
