Daily Times

QUETTA: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Monday said the July 25 general elections are being held in an environment of fear.

“We were told that terrorism has been eliminated but terror attacks are still happening. The upcoming elections are being contested in an environment of fear,” the PPP chairman told media in Quetta.

Bilawal was in Quetta to extend condolences to the family of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) leader Siraj Raisani. He met Raisani’s son at Sarawan House and offered his condolences.

The PPP chairman said allowing some banned organisations to contest the upcoming polls is tantamount to disrespecting democracy and the parliament. “Do we want that terrorists have a role in politics?” he asked. Urging the political parties to speak up against the permission granted to banned organisations to contest the July 25 election, Bilawal said, “In 2013, terrorists declared some parties good and the others bad and for this to repeat in 2018 is condemnable.”

“Security should be the top priority of the caretaker government,” Bilawal said, adding that the nation will defeat terrorists through the power of vote on July 25.

While addressing a press conference in the provincial capital later in the day, Bilawal said he had ‘ideological differences’ with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif. “If PPP has to make an alliance with a party following the July 25 polls, we will see which party’s ideology is the closest to our party manifesto,” he said.

To a question about Imran Khan, Bilawal said, “I cannot keep up with Imran’s U-turns. He says something new every day.” He said, “Imran is constantly criticising other politicians … but the nation now wants to see actions.”

Bilawal said that the country is facing challenges on international level. “Whoever makes the new government will have to face these challenges,” he said.

The PPP chairman lamented that level-playing field was not being provided to every party in the polls. Calling for across-the-board accountability, Bilawal said everyone must be held accountable for his deeds.

Published in Daily Times, July 17^th 2018.