LAHORE, June 21: The Pakistan People’s Party and the Bhutto Shaheed Benazir Workers Movement held separate ceremonies in the city to pay homage to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on her 60th birth anniversary.

A large number of workers gathered at Aiwan-i-Iqbal for the workers movement’s function. They demanded PPP Patron-in-Chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari rid the party of opportunists and make it a party of “jiyalas”. They were chanting slogans and pledged to continue Benazir’s mission.

Three resolutions were unanimously passed on the occasion – condemning the election commission’s decision of not registering the PPP in the workers’ name, introducing the movement’s organisational structure at federal, provincial and district levels and demanding President Asif Zardari and his family stay away from the PPP affairs and let it be run by its real heirs.

Speaking on the occasion, movement’s conveners Nahid Khan and husband Safdar Abbasi said they had launched the struggle to make the PPP a party of ideological workers. They said there was no place for opportunists and Bilawal should decide between his father and the legacy of his mother. They said opportunists should be made accountable for the party’s shameful defeat in three provinces.

Nahid demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif get the murderers of Benazir Bhutto arrested, as he had earlier promised.

Meanwhile, Punjab PPP President Manzoor Wattoo and other party members held a Quran khawani and paid tribute to Benazir.

Lahore PPP Women’s Wing President Faiza Malik said party workers would continue the mission of Benazir Bhutto.

She said the PPP continued its struggle for the rights of the poor. She added the PML-N government had taken revenge from the poor by presenting an anti-poor budget that would make their lives more miserable.