PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asked PTI workers to support his party in the February 8 general election, as Imran Khan’s party seems battered after the apex court stripped it of its electoral symbol bat.

“I have experienced the oppression of the PML-N and I would never wish for any political party worker to endure such hardship,” he told supporters of his party in Lahore’s NA-127 on Sunday. His younger sister Aseefa was also in attendance. “I do not believe in politics of oppression,” he added.

Bilawal is contesting the election from the constituency and will be going up against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Attaullah Tarar.

The PPP chairman has been enthusiastically campaigning across the country and has addressed rallies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well.

He has been calling on voters not to waste their vote and has repeatedly said that his party will deliver a ‘surprise’ to the PML-N, which considers Punjab a stronghold.

In the lead-up to the elections, Bilawal also called for a new brand of politics in the country and has called for the old guard to make way for the new.

In his speech, the PPP chairman reiterated that polls were a contest between the PML-N and the PPP, and urged PTI workers to extend their support to the latter.

While taking a dig at the former ruling party, he stated that imprisoning women belonging to rival parties was not called politics.

“Those who profess to uphold the sanctity of the vote are currently engaging in political manoeuvres that betray their original ideology,” he said.

Later in his tweet, he thanked Lahore and called for putting an end to the politics of “revenge, division, and hate.”

He went on to add that it was time to choose a new way of politics. “Choose ending wasteful government spending on defunct ministries. Choose to redirect untargeted subsidies for the elite to targeted interventions for the poor, the marginalised, the dispossessed. Choose 30 lakh new homes with ownership given to women heads of households. Choose regularising Katchi Abadis. Choose 300 units of free electricity. Choose free healthcare and schooling. Choose prosperity for farmers, laborers, women, and the youth.”