Bilawal fires broadside at PML-N in AJK poll campaign

RAWALAKOT: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday fired a broadside at erstwhile Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) allies Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), criticising what he characterised as their willingness to do anything to come into power.

Addressing an election campaign rally in Poonch area of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Bilawal said those who had espoused “do or die” politics were now willing to go to the extent of “holding someone’s feet to become prime minister”, Geo News reported. Throughout the speech, he referred to the PML-N as “political opponents”.

Bilawal’s comments underscore the prickly relationship the PML-N and PPP have as they independently attempt to make inroads in the AJK electorate ahead of the polls on July 25. The PPP and Awami National Party (ANP) broke away from PDM after the anti-government alliance issued them show-cause notices for manoeuvring Yousuf Raza Gilani into the Senate opposition leader’s slot without the blessing of the PDM leadership.

But the PPP and the PDM’s other two major parties, the JUI-F and PML-N, differed in their approaches to giving the government a tough time, with the latter opting for resigning from the assemblies.

The PPP chairman said even today, he was willing to join hands in mounting no-confidence motions against Prime Minister Imran Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, “but will not be part of the political alliances to have halwa or nihari in the future”.

“We also forgot the bitterness of the past and made an alliance with our political opponents against the puppet,” he was quoted as saying by the PPP Media Cell. “We went to prison to meet them but we should have listened to you people because they did not want to dislodge Imran Khan or Buzdar.”

He added: “They used to say ‘Aar Ya Paar’ but now are ready to plead them to get into government. We will chase out Imran and Buzdar with the Jiyalas despite the anti-democratic forces siding with them.

“They wanted to leave the space for Imran Khan but we convinced them to participate in by-elections and we defeated the puppet from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Pishin and from Karachi to Punjab. We defeated Imran Khan to sixth position in Karachi but our friends in opposition started fighting with us.

“We will not give an inch of space to Imran Khan. We defeated Imran Khan in his own constituency in National Assembly and wanted to give him tough time in the budget session but our friends in the opposition were absent.” He said after Kashmir, workers would turn to Banigala and “drive away the puppets”.

He said: “The puppet Imran Khan has pushed the country into an economic crisis. The real face of Imran Khan’s change is historic poverty, price hike and unemployment. We have greater poverty, price hike and unemployment than India, Bangladesh and even war-torn Afghanistan.

He had promised 10 million jobs and give million houses but he has made millions unemployed and homeless.”

The PPP chairman said the PPP confronted the “puppet” Prime Minister, Imran Khan for the last three years on every front. “From the first day we exposed him and called him by his real name ‘selected’ and he himself thumped the desk,” he said. “After that the puppet never came to the parliament to hear my speech because he was afraid that he will again thump the desk.”

He also said these elections are very important and the workers will send a message on both sides of the border that “Kashmir pe Soda, Na Manzoor”.

Attacking both the government and the PML-N, Bilawal said: “Whatever tyranny is happening in occupied Kashmir cannot be tolerated by the people of Azad Kashmir. We are not the ones who pray for Modi’s win nor do we invite Modi to our weddings. The worst tyranny happens in occupied Kashmir and this puppet and coward Imran Khan is helpless.”

He also criticised the PTI government’s measures. “And what was his response? Renaming Kashmir Highway as Srinagar Highway and changing our own map with a pen. We will have to take a clear stance with the Kashmiri people. The Kashmiri people will take their own decisions.”