PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday urged Gilgit-Baltistan voters to give his party a “heavy” mandate by securing a majority in order to safeguard the region’s rights.
Bilawal was addressing a rally in Ghizer, amid a series of rallies across GB as the PPP and other political parties have, over the past few days, ramped up efforts to garner support ahead of the polls.
Referring to the nine seats the PPP had won in the last GB elections, Bilawal claimed other seats had been stolen. However, this time, “no one can steal seats from you, and this means that all three of Ghizer’s seats will be yours,” he added.
Of other political parties in the running, he said the party wanted a “heavy majority in GB – not for me, but for you” so that together they could complete Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s and Benazir Bhutto’s “incomplete” mission in the region.
The PPP chairman highlighted the achievements of those who came before him, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s subsidies that continued to benefit the region, and Benazir Bhutto’s granting Ghizer district status. President Asif Ali Zardari, he added, had given the region its assembly, identity, governor and chief minister, saying: “Now it is my turn and yours.”
“It is the new generation’s responsibility to secure more rights for GB,” he said, adding that he wanted a mandate from the region so that he could ensure Islamabad listened to the wishes of the GB people before creating any other provinces.
Bilawal particularly stressed the need for a PPP majority, including all three Ghizer seats, in order to pursue the right of sovereignty promised to the people.
He noted that 28,000 square kilometres of land in GB had previously belonged to the state, saying that it was due to the people of GB, the PPP and its assembly members that legislation was passed in the assembly to render it “your land, common land” according to law.
“The people that say the PPP does not deliver on their promises – remind them that we have been in politics for three generations,” he said. “And for three generations we have had a record of being true to our word; when we make promises we deliver on them.”
He added: “Now what’s left? I want to deliver on this legislation. If I don’t get a government, if I don’t get all three of these seats in Ghizer; if I don’t get the seats in Baltistan, all of Gilgit, all of the Diamer division; if I am stopped from installing my chief minister, then I know that whether it is the PML-N or another party, they will tear up our legislation like a piece of paper. They will not deliver on it and my promise will remain incomplete.”
Bilawal also highlighted the right of ownership as a key reason to vote for the PPP, stating that the party wanted to grant ownership of arable land to the people of the region.
He also highlighted the Sindh People’s Housing for Flood-Affectees (SPHF) programme, in which two million houses were being built for flood-affected people with ownership of the houses and land being given to the people themselves. He termed the venture the “biggest land transfer in Pakistan’s history” since the land reforms made by his grandfather, adding that it had created one million jobs in Sindh.
He declared his intention to establish a similar housing scheme in GB, starting from Ghizer, to support those affected by natural disasters and flooding in the region.
Alongside the right to sovereignty and ownership, the PPP chairman also reaffirmed his commitment to the party’s third promise – the “right to employment”.
He compared the PPP with other parties, stating that while PPP politicians competed to see who could create the most jobs – “whether in government, the private sector, public-private partnerships, abroad, through technical education or skills” – other political parties instead competed “to see how many people they can make unemployed”.
“After the PPP government left, no provincial government in GB has given jobs – they have been stolen,” he said.
He described this as the “foundational difference” between the PPP and other parties: “The PPP gives employment; they steal employment.”
Bilawal pledged that if elected, the PPP would do everything possible to create job opportunities in both the public and private sectors, particularly for unemployed youth.
At the same time, he stressed that these opportunities would be merit-based. To avoid any suspicion of bias, he said he intended to use artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for examining and selecting candidates.
General elections in GB are scheduled for Sunday, after a four-month delay attributed to harsh winter weather.