PPP condemns Senate resolution for delaying polls, says Khuhro

Hyderabad: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) condemns the Senate resolution for delaying the elections, said Sindh PPP President Nisar Khuhro as he spoke at a cake-cutting ceremony to celebrate the 96th birthday of PPP founder and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the District Council Hyderabad on Friday.

Many problems arose in Pakistan, but the elections were not postponed, he said and asserted that those who did not want to hold the elections actually did not want to give rights to the people.

He claimed that among the major parties, the PPP was the only party demanding the elections on time as no such demand had yet been made by Nawaz Sharif or Imran Khan.

Khuhro cut the cake at the event and addressed the participants. He said people always celebrated January 5 because they loved Bhutto. He stated that people considered Bhutto as the greatest leader in the history of Pakistan after Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

He was of the view that Bhutto brought Pakistan out of quagmire. He said that when the former prime minister talked about the rights of peasants and labourers, religious decrees were issued against him.

The PPP leader opined that the only fault of Bhutto was that he guided the people of Pakistan. According to Khuhro, there was a large number of achievements to Bhutto’s credit. He cited the nuclear programme of the country and release of the prisoners of the 1971 war from India as major achievements of the PPP founder.

The Sindh PPP president said Bhutto chose death but refused to leave the people of Pakistan. Making references to the current opponents of the PPP, Khuhro said Bhutto was not like those who would say ‘Why did you expel me?’ or ‘Drop the atomic bomb on the country’.

He recalled that whole family of Bhutto rendered sacrifices for the country and to mourn his death, people set themselves ablaze because they could not live without their leader.

Khuhro said Bhutto’s legacy was continued by his daughter Benazir who was young when she assumed the leadership of the party but even in that young age, she instilled fear in the military dictator. Later, she became the first woman prime minister of the country but she was also taken away from the people of Pakistan, he added.

The Sindh PPP president said now Benazir’s son Bilawal was with the people as he believed that the people were the source of power. The PPP was now stronger than before, Khuhro said, adding that the supporters of Imran and Nawaz had left them when troubles started for their leaders.

He said that as per the wishes of the PPP’s supporters, Bilawal would be the party’s prime minister candidate if it won a majority of seats in the coming general elections.