Daily Times

GARHI KHUDA BUX: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday launched a broadside at the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, saying ‘price-hike tsunami had sunken the entire economy and those who had pledged to give 10 million jobs and five million houses had increased gas and electricity tariffs instead.

Addressing a gathering of hundreds of party’s workers and activists, who had come there to observe the 11th martyrdom anniversary of his slain mother and ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the PPP chairman said, “Prime Minister Imran Khan should have been trained if he was to be given government.”

A country’s future can’t be changed with chicken eggs, said Bilawal in a jibe at PM Imran’s idea of improving the country’s economy through poultry business.

Bilawal said that Imran wanted to end 18th Amendment and crush provincial autonomy, which would never be allowed. “PM Imran was brought in to reintroduce one-unit system in the country,” he alleged and asked: “What was the purpose of running campaigns for Kalabagh Dam when three provincial assemblies had rejected it?” “It seems that reservation of Sindh is being thrown in the dust bin, but those in powers seemed to be least concerned,” he added.

Referring to the report of the Supreme Court-mandated Joint Investigation Team in the money laundering case, the PPP chairman said that the JIT report was nothing but a pack of lies.

“If institutions were investigating benami accounts then they should also investigate ‘benami accounts of Prime Minister Imran Khan. We hope that courts will discard the misleading report. Neither public nor I accept report,” said the PPP chairman.

“I want to send this message to all powers that I will fight your conspiracies and will fight your arrogance,” said Bilawal. He said that PPP Jiyalas were his biggest asset.

He said Shaheed BB was still awaiting justice and asked when killers would be brought to justice. He said that ideology of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and vision of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto both were the key to a modern and brighter Pakistan.

In his address, former president Asif Ali Zardari said that his party and its leadership were not scared of the tactics being applied by ‘ladla’, the favoured one and they would face them in the courts.

The PPP co-chairman said that he faced the opponent’s tactics earlier too and will not back down from facing them again.

“They have started to sound like a broken record. Apart from uttering gibberish on television, they don’t know what to do,” he remarked.

He said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is his and Benazir Bhutto’s son and no one could scare him and vowed to fight his political opponents “in court and everywhere else”.

Zardari, who made scarce mention of his late wife in a speech meant to mark Benazir Bhutto’s 11th death anniversary in Garhi Khuda Bukhsh, criticised the incumbent PTI government and claimed that it pales in comparison to the PPP.

“They did nothing in their 100 days,” he said, reminding the party supporters that he had ousted Gen Musharraf and “launched the Benazir [Income Support Programme] card”, among other things, in his own first 100 days as president.

“They will be unable to run the country despite foreign support by friendly countries,” he said.

The PPP had specially organised a congregation to mark the martyrdom anniversary of Benazir Bhutto. She was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.

Published in Daily Times, December 28^th 2018.