PPP eyes votes with week to go

Pakistan’s Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari will campaign in Punjab this week after a poll showed the PPP is the country’s most popular, an aide said on Monday.
Asif Ali Zardari will lead PPP rally in the major industrial town of Faisalabad in Punjab province on Thursday, ahead of elections on February 18, said close aide Zulfiqar Mirza.
Punjab plays a kingmaking role in Pakistani politics as the bulk of the seats in parliament are from the populous province, where more than half the country’s 160-million people live. “Asif Ali Zardari will convey Benazir’s message to the people of the largest province, which is vital for us,” Mirza told AFP. “He will explain that Benazir’s mission was to fight for the rights of the people.”
“Punjab is a major province, it is the heart of Pakistan, it is our powerbase because it has always leant support to the PPP,” Mirza said.
Campaigning has so far been sparse in Pakistan due to government warnings of attacks on rallies. A suicide bombing at a meeting of a small opposition party in northwest Pakistan on Saturday killed at least 27 people.
But on the same day Zardari held a rally in Thatta in Sindh that was attended by around 100,000 people.
A poll conducted by the US-based Terror Free Tomorrow organisation and released at the weekend identified the PPP as the country’s most popular party ahead of the elections.
The survey found that 36.7 percent of people said they would vote for Benazir’s party (PPP), while 25.3 percent chose the opposition party of former premier Nawaz Sharif.
Only 12 percent said they would vote for the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, which backs President Pervez Musharraf. Seventy percent said they thought President Musharraf should resign.
The poll further said that sympathy for al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had dropped sharply, with only 24 percent of Pakistanis approving of him against 46 percent in a similar poll in August.