Former president Asif Ali Zardari has yet to return to the country despite repeated claims that he would return shortly. Zardari left for Dubai on June 24, 2015, a week after his fiery defiant speech against the army in the wake of the Rangers crackdown against PPP workers in Sindh.
PPP candidates contested LB polls on October 31, in districts Khairpur, Sukkur, Ghotki, Larkana, Shikarpur, Qamber-Shahdadkot, Jacobabad and Kashmore-Kandhkot, in the absence party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari. It is unlikely that Zardari will return to lead the campaign in the forthcoming second and third phase of LB elections which would be held on November 19 and December 5, 2015 in Sindh.
Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani told a press conference on Thursday that Zardari would not return for the second and third phase of LB elections as he is suffering from cardiac and diabetic illness. He maintained that Zardari is undergoing treatment in Dubai and London, where physicians are taking care of him, adding that he would come back when his doctors allow him to travel. Another senior PPP leader Naveed Chaudhry also confirmed that Zarari is not feeling well and is being treated by doctors in Dubai and London. He said that Zardari would return to Pakistan after he will declare fit by his doctors.