KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that policies of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have become a threat to the Federation by creating ripples among federating units and pitting them against each other. “Instead of adopting uninformed policies, Nawaz Sharif was trying to appease some specific circles in parts of Punjab. Approval of 97 gas provision projects worth Rs 37 billion in particular areas amounts to axing the Federation and inciting provinces against each other,” the PPP Chairman said in a statement on Wednesday. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that even the historic city of Umerkot of Sindh province has not been provided gas despite the payment by the provincial government to the gas company. Nawaz Sharif government rejected several requests from Sindh government for provision of domestic gas connections in its rural and urban areas. But all such requests were turned down on the pretext of the moratorium.
He said that PPP was the chain of the Federation and it would not allow Nawaz Sharif and his company to harm the Federation just for the sake of winning few seats through his cronies and beneficiaries. The PPP Chairman said those who raised ethnic slogans for their political and personal mileage are out again to pose threats to the unity among provinces by violating the Constitution, which protects the interests of the province in clear terms. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari further pointed out that it was Nawaz Sharif who threw away the key projects like Keti Bunder and Thar Coal in the late 90s and terminated thousands of government employees from the smaller provinces, who were recruited by Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto-led government. He endorsed the letter from Chief Minister, Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah to the Prime Minister about the unconstitutional and illegal new gas projects and warned Nawaz Sharif that any overt or covert threat to the Pakistani Federation won’t be tolerated by PPP and other democratic parties of the country.