By Rana Farooq Ashraf
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has always drawn its strength from its workers, ideological loyalty, and local leadership. These dedicated individuals uphold the party’s message, maintain public trust during challenging times, and give the party its real power. However, the current situation in Central Punjab is not only damaging the morale and trust of committed workers but is also putting the party’s organizational structure at serious risk.
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Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, President of Central Punjab, and Hassan Murtaza, General Secretary of Central Punjab, have prioritized personal interests and narrow circles of influence over the party’s actual grassroots strength. They have sidelined genuinely active workers and placed individuals in key positions who lack loyalty to the party’s mission or ideology. This duo is clearly operating under a specific agenda aimed at weakening the PPP while advancing personal influence. The result has been widespread frustration and disappointment among workers.
A clear example of organizational mismanagement is seen in District Sialwal, where a person from Faisalabad was appointed as General Secretary, ignoring locally active and strong workers who had been officially recommended for leadership positions. These local candidates were supported by the district and tehsil organizations, Women’s Wing, Ulama and Mashaykh Wing, Labor Wing, and Minority Wing. By overlooking their nominations, the leadership has demoralized dedicated workers and undermined the party’s local structure.
Similarly, in District Sialkot, the local workers who were recommended for President and General Secretary positions—by all five National Assembly ticket-holders, the entire district and tehsil organizations, the Women’s Wing, Ulama and Mashaykh Wing, Labor Wing, and Minority Wing—were deliberately ignored. For President and General Secretary were strong candidates with considerable influence in their constituencies and proven loyalty to the party. However, General Secretary Hassan Murtaza excluded them from the initial scrutiny process due to personal grudges and limited interests, and instead placed inactive or personal associates in these positions. This decision created deep dissatisfaction among workers and weakened the party’s organizational backbone.
This behavior is not merely personal bias; it reflects a deliberate strategy by the Central Punjab leadership to suppress genuine workers and promote a narrow, self-serving agenda. Hassan Murtaza’s interactions with workers are highly unprofessional, frequently involving mockery, personal jabs, belittlement, and dismissive behavior. He routinely demoralizes active workers and notable party figures, keeping them away from decision-making and party affairs. Central Punjab workers and former office-bearers are increasingly frustrated with such behavior.
The situation in District Gujranwala is equally alarming. Here, the appointed district president hails from District Wazirabad, and the divisional president, Asif Basheer Bhagat, comes from Gujrat, with no practical ties to Gujranwala Division. This clearly shows that the Central Punjab leadership is sidelining genuinely active workers and local representatives to serve a personal agenda, which is detrimental to organizational cohesion and morale.
In other districts as well, former office-bearers and presidents have been removed, and inactive or personal affiliates have been promoted to key positions. For instance, the Deputy Secretary Information post was given to a personal staff member of Hassan Murtaza, ignoring experienced and ideologically committed party workers. This not only undermines the party’s message but also fosters disillusionment and mistrust among the workforce.
The approach of Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Hassan Murtaza clearly shows that their focus is self-interest and constituency politics, not strengthening the PPP. Their decisions systematically marginalize loyal and capable workers while elevating inactive or personally connected individuals, weakening the ideological stance and operational efficiency of the party.
The true strength of the PPP lies in its workers, grassroots leadership, and ideological commitment. If immediate and effective action is not taken by the central leadership, the party in Punjab may survive only in name, and the Central Punjab leadership’s agenda will succeed in weakening its base. It is imperative that the central leadership and Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari form a central committee to assess the ground realities, address the concerns of loyal workers, and evaluate the impact of recent appointments on the party’s messaging and structure.
This committee should ensure that genuinely active workers are reinstated in key positions, the influence of inactive or personally motivated individuals is minimized, and grievances of frustrated and sidelined workers are addressed. Only through these measures can the PPP regain its organizational and political strength in Central Punjab.
This is a critical moment. The sacrifices, loyalty, and dedication of PPP workers must be recognized, and immediate steps must be taken to restore their trust. Workers should not only be heard but actively included in decision-making to ensure the party’s ideological integrity, public confidence, and organizational strength remain intact. Without these interventions, the PPP in Punjab risks becoming a nominal entity, with its real foundation eroded by personal politics and biased leadership.
Now is the time for the PPP central leadership to restore confidence between its Punjab workers and local leadership, reinstate genuinely active workers in leadership positions, and safeguard the party’s ideological mission, grassroots strength, and public credibility. The future of the PPP in Punjab depends on addressing these issues decisively and urgently.
