Bilawal dissatisfied with PM’s UNGA speech

SEHWAN: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday accused “selected” media and commentators of hyping up Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, maintaining the Premier did not make a strong case for the plight of the people of occupied Kashmir.

The Premier should have focused solely on the Kashmir crisis instead of bringing up other issues, Bilawal said while talking to media here. He regretted that the Prime Minister did not emphasise the disputed status of the Kashmir territory in his speech, “which might lead some people to think you have accepted that status quo”.

Bilawal said that was a compromise that Pakistani people could not tolerate. The PPP chairman said while it was important to highlight human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, the Prime Minister should also have talked about UN resolutions granting Kashmiri residents the right to self-determination.

Bilawal repeated his party’s stance that the Prime Minister had not done enough to highlight the situation in occupied Kashmir that had been under an unprecedented lockdown since India revoked the region’s special status on August 5. How many countries had he [Prime Minister] visited since Article 370 was repealed, Bilawal asked.

He said no matter how much the “selected” commentators laud and celebrate the Premier’s speech, public did not feel the same passion as they were disappointed.

“You know how in North Korea every time the leader makes a speech or issues a statement people are made to line up on the streets and they clap [for the government] and anchors are made to sit before cameras on TV and they laud. This is what is happening in Pakistan,” Bilawal said.