Daily Times

LAHORE: Treading the path of Benazir Bhutto in politics against wrongdoings of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced to hold a ‘long march’ against the premier from Lahore after December 27 this year.

Benazir Bhutto had also held a successful long march with the title of ‘Tehreek-e-Nijat’ against the same prime minister in 1993 and, resultantly, he was removed by then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on corruption charges.Bilawal Bhutto – on the last day of six-day celebrations in connection with the 49th foundation day of the party at the Bilawal House in Bahria Town – addressed hundreds of charged PPP workers from Central Punjab.

The PPP chairman said that with the cooperation of the party workers of all four provinces, they would hold a long march against Nawaz Sharif’s rule if his already announced four demands – including passing of a bill on Panama, removal of the incumbent interior minister and appointment of a full-fledged foreign minister – were not meet before the deadline.

Bilawal reiterated his political stance that he had not come to Lahore to get any share in the politics of Punjab, but had come to “occupy the province” democratically. He said that he would start his party’s long march from the city of rulers who lived in Raiwind.

He said that the “last term of the Sharifs in power” would end soon, and that the PPP would constitute the government after the next general election in 2018.

Giving a six-month schedule of his long march after December 27, Bilawal said that during the first three months of the long march, they would expose the Nawaz League government’s wrongdoings and shortcomings, while in the other three months they would move for electioneering.

He said that the country’s economy had been ruined by Nawaz Sharif’s policies, as every child of Pakistan carried a burden of Rs 120,000 in the form of loans, while the government had not given any benefit to the people despite low prices of oil in the international market. He said that even the issue of load shedding had not been resolved by the rulers, which remained their prime slogan during the last election campaign.

The PPP chairman, backing the minorities, said that they were being tortured. He said that the agriculture sector was going to collapse, while industries were being closed and labourers left jobless.