Daily Times

Former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday said that all political parties except the PPP were involved in the “politics of hatred and division”.

Bilawal passed these remarks during two PPP rallies as electioneering picks up momentum ahead of the February 8 general elections. The PPP chairman has been campaigning across the country all month.

Addressing party workers and supporters in Badin, Bilawal said the PPP believed in the power of the people. “While other political parties are fighting among themselves, we are fighting for you,” he claimed. He stated that the PPP was the only party that had prepared and presented its manifesto before the nation. Bilawal also mentioned his 10-point agenda if his party emerges victorious in the polls, which includes addressing problems such as poverty, inflation, unemployment and hunger.

Turning his guns on the PML-N, Bilawal said “a person wants to run for the prime minister for a fourth time […] but he does not have an election campaign or a manifesto”.

“He believes in the power of conspiracies […] he believes in ruling the people,” he said in a veiled dig at PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif – his frequent target during election rallies.

Just days earlier, Bilawal had also claimed that PML-N had a hand in the misallocation of electoral symbols to his party’s candidates. Despite teaming up with the PML-N when both parties were part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government until last year, the PPP chairman has repeatedly criticised PML-N at various rallies during his election campaign. In the rally, Bilawal alleged that whenever the PML-N came to power, “the burden always fell on the poor”. “This is the sher (tiger) that sucks the blood of the people,” Bilawal said, referring to PML-N’s electoral symbol, and vowed that the “PPP’s arrow will hunt the sher down”.

He urged the public to vote for him and promised that if the PPP came to power, it would change the fate of the country. Towards the end of the rally, Bilawal also took an oath from PPP candidates regarding serving the country when and if elected.

During the rally in Sanghar, Bilawal once again attacked the PML-N and said: “The tiger has become a cat and is hiding at home, he is not ready to hunt.”