PM’s statement against 18th Amend attack on Constitution: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has expressed concern about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statements against 18th Amendment and termed the same an attack on the 1973 Constitution.

He said that his party intends to call an all parties conference (APC) for adopting a cohesive national narrative for taking the country out of a slew of multiple crises.

Speaking during a consultative meeting via a telephone-conference with the party’s senior leadership, Bilawal said the prime minister has little knowledge about the Constitution and he has declared the constitutional powers of the elected chief ministers as dictatorial. “Imran Khan obviously has no idea of how a federation works let alone the significance of distribution of resources among the federating units,” he said. Those who joined the conference call and shared their views include former prime minister Raja Parvaiz Ashraf, parliamentary leader of the PPP in Senate Sherry Rehman, Syed Naveed Qamar, Maula Bux Chandio, Farhatullah Babar and Dr Nafisa Shah.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the disastrous policies and confused messaging of the prime minister have allowed the pandemic to spin out of control and everyone is surprised that he appears adamant against a lockdown despite a huge surge in deaths due to the virus. “The prime minister has openly ignored the warnings from the WHO, health professionals and the opposition,” he added.

The PPP chairman said the PTI government has pushed the country into a very dangerous situation by neglecting health and agriculture in the budget and warned that Imran Khan would be held responsible if locust attacks dragged Pakistan into a famine.

The PPP chairman pointed out that certain statements of Prime Minister Imran Khan show that he is not aware about the importance of NFC Award, questioning as to how a country will run when its chief executive is unaware of the importance of distribution of resources among the federating units.