Govt to be sent packing in January: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that in January 2021, the PTI government of Imran Khan will be sent packing and a people’s government will take over from this selected and puppet government.

“The democratic forces are saying goodbye to Imran in the month of January in Pakistan,” he said while addressing a mammoth public gathering at the main Bazaar Skardu in connection with the PPP election campaign for the election 2020 to be held on November 15.

Former governor Gilgit-Baltistan Qamar Zaman Kaira, former chief minister GB Mehdi Shah, President PPP GB Amjad Hussain Advocate and Sadia Danish were present in the public gathering.

The PPP chairman said people are in trouble in Pakistan today because their votes were stolen but “we will not let anyone to steal people’s vote”. “The PPP will not allow any such stealing of votes in Gilgit-Baltistan,” he said.

He said people will form a PPP government in Gilgit-Baltistan and then a people’s government in Pakistan. He said: “We will defeat the selected and their associates in every district of Gilgit-Baltistan. “Today every section of the society is protesting against this government all over Pakistan,” he said, adding that the PTI government has closed utility stores in Gilgit-Baltistan.

He said the country is sinking in the tsunami of price hike, unemployment and poverty during this tyrant rule of the PTI. The government has increased the prices of medicines up to 400 per cent. Gilgit-Baltistan has not become a separate province yet but the PTI government has imposed taxes on its people. He said the PTI is a puppet party and unfortunately some other parties have agreed to become puppet of the puppet. “How the people who follow Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA) are taking the side of an oppressor and tyrant,” he said.

Bilawal started his speech with the poem of Mohsin Naqvi “Ya Allah Ya Rasool, Benazir Be Qasoor”. He said it is unfortunate that the tyrants snatched Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Shaheed Shahnawaz Bhutto, Shaheed Mir Murtaza Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto from people. He said he has gone to the smallest town and village in Gilgit-Baltistan and saw Bhutto alive all around. He remembered all those who established the PPP in Gilgit-Baltistan and said that the struggle started by them is continued.

He said only the PPP fights for the rights of oppressed people. These rights to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan were given by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari. He said nothing had been done for the rights of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan till 1974 when Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ended the FCR in Gilgit-Baltistan. “Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto introduced democracy in GB in 1994. Then in 2009, President Zardari gave GB its first assembly, first governor and first chief minister,” he said.

Bilawal said that the campaign for the right to rule and right to property belongs to the PPP. He said he went to every district of Gilgit-Baltistan and ran this campaign from Gilgit to Astore and from Ghanche to Shigar and Skardu. He said the PPP is the only party which included the demands of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan in its manifesto for elections in Pakistan in 2018. The PPP is the only party which said that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan should have their own province, representation in the Senate and the National Assembly and demanded increase in funds for Gilgit-Baltistan.

He said the campaign for the right to rule and the right to property depends on the November 15 election. “I need two-thirds majority so that these rights are materialized,” he said, adding that the PPP gave constitutional and democratic rights to the people of Pakistan and it is the only party which can give the country the economic stability.

He said the PPP has always worked for the marginalized people of Pakistan. “We have to save the people of Gilgit-Baltistan from hunger, poverty and unemployment.” He said Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had started the Karakorum highway for the economic benefit of the people. “He gave subsidy on food items, clothes and transport to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan and established institutions like the Steel Mills to provide employment to the youth of this country,” he said, adding that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto provided free passports to people so that they could go abroad and work there to support their families.

Bilawal said former president Asif Ali Zardari followed the same philosophy and brought the CPEC to Pakistan so that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, FATA and Balochistan could benefit from this mega project. “It is unfortunate that these people could not get benefit but the PPP will make sure that it happens,” he said.

He said the Baba-e-Rozgar gave 25,000 jobs to the youth of GB. “We started the BISP to support poor women of Pakistan. The PPP increased salaries and pensions of government employees and army personnel,” he said. He vowed to establish a network of free hospitals for heart, liver and kidney diseases in every district of Gilgit-Baltistan like in Sindh. “We will have to form a government in Gilgit-Baltistan so that the problems are solved,” he said.

At the end of his speech, he asked his candidates to take oath to serve people and provide jobs to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. Similarly, he asked people to promise that they will vote for PPP candidates.

Bilawal has so far addressed 12 corner meetings in the Baltistan Division in connection with the party’s election campaign 2020. This was the first public rally of the PPP in the Skardu Division.