Daily Times

In his maiden speech in the National Assembly, Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto on Friday expressed the hope that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan would refrain from doing ‘politics of hatred’ in the capacity of prime minister of the country.

Addressing the National Assembly after Imran Khan was elected as prime minister of Pakistan, Bilawal said it was his honour to become part of this House. The 29-year-old criticised the two largest parties for creating a ruckus in the parliament.

Bilawal said he was anticipating how the newly elected prime minister will implement his 100-day plan. “People are looking at Imran Khan to resolve the issues of the country. Imran is not a party chairman anymore … he is the leader of Pakistan now,” he said.

“I want to remind Imran that he isn’t the prime minister of just one party. He is the prime minister of the entire country. Imran is also the PM of those whom he called living corpses, donkeys, goats and sheep,” he added.

The PPP chairman, at the beginning of his speech, also paid tribute to the martyrs who laid their lives in attacks during the time of general election. He said that an investigation should be carried out into attacks in Peshawar, Mastung and Quetta, which caused heavy damages in terms of human lives. He further said that a strong policy against terrorism is the need of the hour. While expressing his disdain over disorder in the House, Bilawal said that protest is the right of any political party, however the way it was done during the session was unacceptable. He also expressed the hope that National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser will keep the House in order next time.

The PPP scion claimed that rigging took place before and after the elections, adding that polling agents were expelled from the polling stations across Pakistan. “We are part of the parliament to support the democratic process. This doesn’t mean that we will ignore the discrepancies in the election,” he remarked, demanding a probe into rigging allegations.

“If the prime minister-elect makes constitutional supremacy and human development his priorities, we will stand by his side,” he said. “I congratulate the prime minister-select,” he concluded, with his use of the word ‘select’ possibly referring to allegations of poll engineering.

The maiden speech of the PPP scion in the National Assembly was widely praised on social media.

The PPP chairman’s speech stole the show for all the right reasons – from paying tribute to the martyrs of the electioneering-related attacks to the requisites of a democratic system, it was an all-encompassing speech. Social media hailed the young leader’s address to the House, having more than 300 lawmakers during the session. Some even went to the length to think of him as the future PM.

Published in Daily Times, August 18^th 2018.