PPP to form next govt in Balochistan: Bilawal

QUETTA: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday said that "the next government will be formed by the PPP," adding that it is the only party that can resolve the problems of the province.Addressing a rally in the provincial capital of Balochistan, he said with PPP in power, all the problems faced by the people of Balochistan will be resolved.

Expressing confidence in his party, Bilawal said that the PPP will form the next government all over Pakistan, including Balochistan and that a PPP jiyala (devotee) will become the next Balochistan chief minister.

Bilawal said that the people of Balochistan have witnessed a lot of hardships over the last five years. "If there is any political party in the country that cares about the needs of the poor, it is the Pakistan People's Party," he claimed.

The PPP chairman welcomed several new members from Balochistan into the party, including Abdul Qadir Baloch and Sanaullah Zehri, and promised to provide full support to them on behalf of the party.

“We will empower and support each other so that we could continue our struggles,” he said. “Together, we will find solutions to the problems being faced by the people of this province and reach out to each and every district.”

He thanked the people of Balochistan for supporting his grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in the past and said that the PPP has always worked towards the welfare of the poor and the needy. “We started the Benazir Income Support Programme to pull people out of poverty,” he said, adding that with the exception of the PPP, all other political parties in the country are trying to “snatch the rights of the people of Balochistan”. He further said that the PPP is the “only party that understands how to give the people of Balochistan their due rights.”

“If the people of Balochistan support the party, there is no power in the world that can stop it,” said Bilawal. Speaking during the rally, Abdul Qadir Baloch, who recently joined the PPP from Balochistan, said that he decided to bid farewell to the PML-N because the party is “not prominent in Balochistan anymore”. He said that the PTI does not have any important figures in Balochistan either, therefore, he decided to join the PPP.

“The PPP established its worth in the province on the basis of merit,” Baloch said, adding that if the party continues to do good work there, it will easily form a government in Balochistan. Former PML-N member Sanaullah Zehri, who also announced that he’s joining the PPP, said that he parted ways with his former party because PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif “disrespected” PML-N members from Balochistan.

“The only thing we had asked for from Punjab was respect,” he said. He added that since the British rule of the subcontinent, the people of Balochistan have been rendering sacrifices but have never bowed down to oppressors.

“Since you are the grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, we expect that you will not do to us what Nawaz Sharif did,” Zehri said to Bilawal. Zehri assured the party chairman that he would give more sacrifices for the PPP than he did for the PML-N.

“PPP is the party of my martyred sister, Benazir Bhutto, therefore, I will shed my blood, sweat, and tears for the sake of the party,” Zehri said. Zehri also added that he wishes to see Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari as the next prime minister of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said that Bilawal would “never succeed to form his party’s government in Balochistan.”

“Bilawal’s wish to have PPP Chief Minister in Balochistan can never become a news,” he said in a statement while reacting to the PPP’s Chairman’s remarks. He said that Bilawal had now chosen Balochistan “after he had failed to spread chaos in other parts of the country.”

“Bilawal should tell as to how he would overthrow the federal government with a party which had been relegated to a province,” Habib questioned. The minister said instead of criticising the PTI government, Bilawal should tell the people of Balochistan about his party’s humiliating defeat in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

“Bilawal has no right to speak about honour in politics,” he said, adding that such people could only respect corruption, money laundering, fake accounts, and looted money. He said the PTI-led government had allocated record funds in Public Sector Development Programme for Balochistan’s uplift.

“The people of Balochistan are praising Prime Minister Imran for taking historic steps to alleviate Balochistan’s deprivation,” he added. He further claimed that the PTI is the “only government that had been ensuring equal development opportunities in every province.”