Daily Times

The Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari took a jab at the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday and said he hopes former premier Nawaz Sharif will face the courts on his return.

The complaint of a level playing field was directed at the PML-N, said Bilawal addressing a press conference in Lahore.

“Our demand for a level playing field is from the PML-N. Ideally, the parties allied under the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would have made the demand for elections and moved forward together. The PML-N arranged so that there isn’t a level playing field, so the complaint is also from them. If the complaint was from someone else, I would have named them,” said Bilawal.

He further said that “the right to announce elections is neither with me nor with the establishment but it is with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The election date should be immediately announced”. He claimed that funds were not being released for development schemes in Sindh but the same was being carried out in other provinces.

PPP chairman said the party’s CEC has unanimously made a demand that the election schedule including poll date should be given to the party. “We have also empowered Zardari to address these concerns regarding a level-playing field, so it is not appropriate for me to raise this objection repeatedly.”

According to Bilawal, the authority to announce election dates does not rest with the establishment but exclusively with the Election Commission of Pakistan. Commenting on the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada, Bilawal, who served as the foreign minister during the coalition government’s tenure, said that it was time for the international community to accept that India had become a “rogue Hindutva terrorist state”.

He further stated: “Till when the international community, particularly our friends in the West, will continue to ignore such events involving India. It is time for the international community to accept that India has become a rogue Hindutva terrorist state.

“They have not only conducted terrorism in [occupied] Kashmir, not only we in Pakistan have caught their spies involved in terrorism in our country, but they have now been caught violating the sovereignty of a Nato-member state. “This is not only a violation of Canadian sovereignty. This is [also] a violation of international law and international norms. And the PPP calls – but Pakistan should call on the international community to stand with the people of Canada and highlight the atrocities of the religio-fascist state that is today’s India.” Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Farooq Sattar decried the lack of a “level-playing field” in Sindh as his party put forth its reservations against constituencies, transfers, postings and appointments in front of the Election Commission on Tuesday. Sattar led a five-member delegation to meet the chief election commissioner. The MQM-P leader, while informing the commission of the party’s stance on elections, raised matters related to constituencies in the provincial capital. “We have serious reservations about the constituencies of 2018. They were tailor-made to support a certain party only,” he said. To which, the ECP assured that they would address all concerns.