PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has expressed hope that Pakistan’s next prime minister would not be from Lahore this time.

“PPP is always ready for elections. We have always approached the people instead of others and we believe in the people and hopefully, every citizen can be a candidate but the people will have the final decision,” he told reporters in Karachi.

“I am hopeful that this time the people of Pakistan will not choose Pakistan’s prime minister from Lahore.”

Delayed elections are due in Pakistan on February 8. The date was finally announced by the polls overseer and the president after the Supreme Court asked the Election Commission of Pakistan to announce the date in consultation with President Arif Alvi.

The scion of Bhutto dynasty was in Karachi a day after his party bagged 24 out of 26 seats in local government by-elections in Sindh. The party won seven out of nine seats in Karachi where the city mayor, Murtaza Wahab, also won the chairman seat from UC 13 Saddar Town.

Earlier in the day, Bilawal’s father Asif Ali Zardari expressed his hope that the sun of February 8 would rise with the message of Bilawal’s victory.

Pakistan’s last two premiers, Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, were from Punjab. The PML-N supremo was disqualified from holding public office in 2017 over conduct unbecoming and the PTI chairman was ousted through a no-trust vote.

When asked about the contact between Nawaz and Zardari, he said that it was old news and that the two leaders did have a contact when the PML-N supremo returned to Pakistan on October 21.

He hailed the development, saying: “PPP’s doors were never closed for anyone. If anyone phones or has a discussion with anyone for political matters it should not be such big news.”

The PPP chief added that his party would keep contacting all parties and fight the general elections on their “own”.

He went on to add that the PPP’s victory in Karachi proved that the people from Karachi to Kashmore were with them. “Hopefully, on February 8, we will prove that the people from Karachi to Kashmir were also with the PPP,” Bilawal said.

While responding to a query on a level playing field demand from the PML-N, he said that the PPP was on the field and winning elections. He advised that such a question should be asked of those who were running away from by-elections, local government elections, and November elections.

In response to a query on the fresh wave of terrorism, he said that the PPP if came into power would implement the National Action Plan and take this issue “seriously”.

Bilawal added that he has been raising the issue of American weapons left by US troops before withdrawal from Afghanistan. “The solution to this issue is that we have to support our police and give them the resources that their rival have.

When asked by a demand from the PML-N that Alvi should quit, he said that the president can keep the post until his successor is appointed.

The PPP chief added that he had been raising the issue of violation of the Constitution by the president while he was part of the coalition government. “But if the PML-N is making such a demand then it raises a question of why we did not take those steps in 16 months of the government,” he said.