KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said the PPP has always emphasised timely conduct of general elections in the country as per the Constitution and his party would oppose any delay in the polls like it was opposing the proposal to hold early elections.
The PPP chairman stated this on Thursday while addressing a press conference here at the Bilawal House after chairing the central executive committee of his party. He said that polls should be held in the country on time as per the constitutional needs, whether they are general or local government elections.
He said that parliament was the supreme constitutional forum in the country and it was their desire to see it getting stronger. He advised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to become a politician who truly believes in democracy in the last stage of his life.
He said they wanted to work along with Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) as the PPP also desired to improve the local government system in the province. Bilawal said that the new Sindh governor and Karachi’s administrator had been appointed as per the accord the MQM had signed with its new coalition partners.
He said the Sindh government had been providing development funds out of its own kitty to the municipal agencies and lawmakers from the urban areas but no one should expect the PPP to take any unconstitutional step.
He said that they fully welcomed and believed in the announcement of the establishment that it would stay neutral in national politics and only the time would tell to what extent the establishment would stick to its announcement. “We are living through a transitory era, 70 years of mistakes cannot be corrected in a minute,” he said.
The foreign minister urged the top judiciary of the country to hold an immediate hearing of the Presidential Reference pending for the last 12 years about the judicial assassination of the country’s first elected prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, saying that if even the founder of the Constitution and democracy cannot get justice, then who will get justice in the country?
He also urged all the democratic forces of the country that in order to prevent the continuation of crises arising one after the other and to make the country prosperous, it was inevitable that all the parties formed a code of conduct.
He lamented the current situation of Imran Khan who, according to him, was crying like a child after the establishment had withdrawn its patronage to him. He said that Imran Khan wouldn’t become the prime minister for the second time after the establishment had decided not to support him anymore. The PPP chairman said that every stage of Imran Khan’s politics was brazenly linked with the establishment.
He alleged that the “real estate mafia” had been given a free hand in Punjab during the PTI’s rule. He said Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi had now been patronising Farah Gogi’s corruption.
Bilawal said he called the criminals involved in the martyrdom of Army Public School Peshawar as terrorists and he would continue to call them terrorists and wasn’t afraid of death. He demanded the government convene parliament’s committee on national security to deal with the issue of terrorism.
He claimed that terrorists had established a parallel government of their own in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The PPP chairman said that destruction had been caused in the country in the name of change during the PTI’s past regime. He said that Imran Khan during the last months of his premiership had resorted to things unprecedented in political history.
Bilawal appreciated incumbent PM Shehbaz Sharif and his economic team for saving the country from default. He said the current economic team should continue working for a year to serve the country.
He blamed the previous regime of PTI for the current high inflation in the country. He said that Pervaiz Elahi had to seek a vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly if he wanted to remain in the CM office.
He told journalists that the PPP’s CEC meeting had formed a committee that will communicate with all the democratic forces to formulate a code of conduct within the framework of which political parties should conduct election campaigns and play a role in parliament.
He announced that the PPP would celebrate the current year as the Golden Jubilee of the 1973 Constitution. “Events will be organised across the country in this regard, to make the youth aware of democracy and the struggle for it,” he said.
Bilawal said that there was a danger of polarisation in the country, and politics of hatred and division was being promoted. The politics of “my way or the highway” or “if I am not playing, then I will not let anyone play” is being promoted. “This approach is a threat to politics, society, and democracy,” he warned.
“Our policy on terrorism is clear that terrorists and extremists are enemies of Pakistan, humanity and our religion of Islam.” He further said that he was strongly opposed to Imran Khan’s policy of appeasing terrorists, as the front-man of terrorists.
He pointed out that Imran Khan took such steps during his rule that were against national security. He first released the perpetrators of APS tragedy and sent them out of the country, then the terrorists imprisoned in Afghanistan’s jails were also invited to stay in Pakistan. “As a result of Imran Khan’s actions, the country is facing terrorism again today,” he said.
