Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr Announces Launch of New Political Party to Champion Farmers’ Rights

Lahore (Staff Reporter) – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior, grandson of former Prime Minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, has announced plans to launch a new political party focused on protecting the rights of farmers and representing the agricultural community, which he called the backbone of Pakistan’s economy.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Friday, Bhutto Jr outlined that the party’s main mission would be to support farmers and labourers by promoting the philosophy of his grandfather. He criticized the PPP for failing to fully implement Bhuttoism and declared that his party would revive those principles under the slogan ‘Jiay Awam’.

The event was attended by prominent civil society activists and members of Anjuman Mazarin Punjab, including Dr Ammar Ali Jan and Ghulam Abbas, who voiced concerns over the exploitation of farmers, especially regarding recent government loan repayment notices and public-private partnership deals adversely affecting agricultural landowners.

Bhutto Jr, son of the late Mir Murtaza Bhutto who founded PPP-Shaheed Bhutto, stressed the importance of genuine devolution of power to the masses and underscored his firm support for provincial autonomy as guaranteed by the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

He also voiced strong opposition to the proposed project to construct six canals from the Indus River in the Cholistan region, warning it would worsen Sindh’s already critical water shortage. Bhutto Jr called for a national water distribution framework based on the Sindh Accord to ensure fair resource allocation.

Rejecting the government’s ‘Green Pakistan’ initiative, he accused it of exploiting farmers through large-scale corporate farming and land acquisitions, which are causing farmers to lose their holdings.

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The launch of Bhutto Jr’s new party is expected to challenge the longstanding dominance of the PPP in Sindh, which has governed the province continuously since 2008. While the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), composed of senior Sindh political figures, failed to pose a significant threat to the PPP, the emergence of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr signals a potentially dynamic shift in Sindh’s political landscape with the new generation of leadership led by Bilawal Bhutto.

This development could reshape provincial politics, especially as Bhutto Jr emphasizes the need for inclusive governance and better representation of rural communities in national decision-making.