Country to have fresh polls, new PM next year: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Friday said he could say with full confidence that country will have a new prime minister next year.

“I can say with full confidence that this ‘selected’ prime minister has to go and fresh elections will be held and we will have a new elected prime minister next year,” he said while addressing a press conference after chairing a meeting of the PPP Core Committee at the Zardari House here.

Bilawal said the chances of ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan had increased and he felt confident that it would be difficult for the rulers to stop the momentum once it was made.

He said the rulers were not realising that their ‘selected’ support had declined, as their efforts to hide the debate on rigging in the election, conspiracies and steps against democracy had failed,” he said.

He said for 13 days straight in the capital the interviews of political leaders were not telecast by the TV channels and even journalists were not able to report which was pure censorship.

He said the PPP wanted to have free, fair and transparent elections in the country. He said they did not want to go from one elected to another selected.

Asked if he endorsed Fazlur Rehman’s Plan B, Bilawal said the JUI-F had not shared with them the details of their Plan B or Plan C and he was not aware of discussions between Fazl and the PML leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.

“Even the PPP and its members in the Rahber Committee are not aware of Plan B,” he said, adding that he could not comment on Plan B unless he was aware of it.

He said the PPP had fulfilled all its promises made with Fazl and participated and addressed the Azadi March.

“The PPP’s public campaign will remain intact,” he added.

To another question, he said the PPP did not believe in civil disobedience.

He said former president Asif Ali Zardari was in jail without conviction and he was not allowed to access private doctors. He said despite medical advice of the government medical board, Zardari was not being shifted to hospital.

He said there was no law under which a crime was committed somewhere else and its trial was conducted somewhere else.

“The accused is from Sindh and the alleged crime has occurred in Sindh but the trial is being conducted in Rawalpindi. The government is not replying to our queries and the institution concerned has failed to stop this injustice,” he added.

It was a big question mark on the federation, he said, adding that if the cases of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were also tried in Rawalpindi and Lahore, then it would have a negative impact on the federation.

“We are not making efforts to leave the country and Zardari has refused to apply for bail from the court, as the cases against him are a fake. Our petition seeking justice is pending with the Supreme Court. We hope the Supreme Court will not repeat the past mistakes. We hope it will not once gain have the blood on its hands and will reverse this illegal and unconstitutional decision and the Sindh cases will be tried in Sindh,” he said.

He said the PPP was not seeking any favour but fair accountability and justice.

To a question, he said the PPP always believed that only democracy and more democracy was the solution to all the issues in Pakistan.

“The selected system is not following the Constitution, the foreign policy is going through a historic crisis, and the economy is in a shambles. The PPP only demands free, fair and transparent elections,” he said.

Replying to a question with regard to a reported statement quoting the Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa as saying that the economy was going in the right direction, Bilawal said he had not read the statement but the national institutions should not involve themselves in the economic issues.

“This question should not be asked from us but from the small traders, unemployed youth, labourers and our journalist friends who are suffering the consequences of economic fall-out,” he said.

He said those claiming that the economy was on the right path should look at the misery the unemployed people were going through.

Replying to another question, he said the election slogan of Imran Khan was not two but one Pakistan but it seemed there were two Pakistans now – one for the common man and one for Imran Khan and his friends.

“In the common man’s Pakistan, people cannot buy tomatoes, but in Imran Khan’s Naya Pakistan journey by a helicopter costs Rs5 per kilometer, tomatoes sell at Rs17 and economy is moving in the right direction,” he said.

“Pakistanis have been bearing the burden of government’s incompetency ever since the present ineligible rulers came into power," he maintained.

He said the PPP would present its economic agenda on its founding day. "On our founding day, we will hold a public rally in Azad Kashmir," he said. Bilawal said the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) had been transformed into a huge jail. “The PPP would not stop raising its voice for the people of Kashmir,” he added.