Bilawal advises Nawaz to focus on Lahore

MITHI: As Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif headed to Balochistan, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Tuesday advised the three-time prime minister to keep his focus on Lahore and address the problems his party faced in the Punjab instead.

“I would suggest Mian Sahib to stay in Lahore and focus on its problems,” said the PPP chairman during a presser in Mithi. He urged the PMLN to do politics on its own instead of relying on others, an obvious reference to PMLN’s alliance with Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P).

To a question, Bilawal said PMLN had run away from the by-elections while in power and asked, “Will they give a surprise in the general election?”

Bilawal said the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) kicked out the PPP and criticized it for taking votes from the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP). “If BAP was bad yesterday, then it would be bad today as well. Mian Sahib’s visit will yield the same result,” remarked the PPP chairman. Bilawal said Pakistan cannot prosper amid the politics of accusations and revenge. “Those who sit in Islamabad know little about ground realities. But we don’t look left and right, rather we look towards the people,” said the PPP leader. Reflecting on the time when PPP was part of the grand PDM coalition government, Bilawal said, “Forming the PDM government was the need of the hour. Had we kept [our] political interests first, we would have taken a different decision.”

He maintained that there was a political and economic crisis in the country at the time, and Pakistan was isolated at the global level, therefore, forming a government with the PDM according to the time was the right decision. “We are now heading towards the election, we wish for PPP’s government to be formed,” he said. The former foreign minister reiterated that he had no difference or resentment with anyone. “We do not have any dispute with any institution at this time. PPP is looking towards the people.” But he once again complained that the PPP never received a level playing field. We have been persistently voicing concerns regarding the absence of equal opportunities to prove itself ahead of the polls, he said. The PPP chairman said he was ready to contest elections after his 15-month performance in the government as the foreign minister, asking, “Are Shehbaz Sharif and other leaders also ready?”

“The manifesto of PPP is a reflection of its performance in Thar,” said Bilawal, adding that they would not rest until there were jobs for everyone. He said the PPP plans to establish a railway line from Tharparkar to Karachi, which will help Thar’s coal reach the markets. To a question about the caretaker government, Bilawal said the caretakers were supposed to conduct elections and continue the policy of the previous government. “The caretaker government should provide facilities and not become an obstacle,” he added. Meanwhile, President Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Asif Ali Zardari, said alliances were formed against the PPP in the past as well but they paid no heed to them as people were their priority. “Some people resort to alliances for power, but for us, the people are enough,” he said in a statement. In the upcoming elections, the PPP will win from all over the country. “It will win from the coast to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Zardari hoped. The former president expressed his gratitude to the people of Thar for holding a grand rally for the PPP chairman.