Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Thursday said economic rights are not safe until democratic and human rights are not protected in the country.

Addressing a rally in Mohmand, the PPP leader said Prime Minister Imran Khan wants to establish one unit by depriving the provinces of their rights. He said human rights are being ruined and economic rights of the people are being snatched. He said everyone is facing the current economic disaster, questioning that what kind of change it is. He said Naya Pakistan is not less than a punishment for the people, adding that the recent budget is anti-people. “Unemployment is ruining our youth. Prices of vegetables, petrol, diesel, gas, sugar and flour have increased while budget for education and health has been reduced,” he lamented. The ‘selected’ prime minister, he said, has rolled out a budget which is against the people of Pakistan. “This is nothing more than an economic terrorism.”

The PPP chairman slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan, claiming the latter is mired in his ‘own drug habit’. “He [Imran Khan] arrested Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz [PML-N] leader Rana Sanaullah over drug possession … but what about his own drug habit?” he said.

Speaking about the two incarcerated Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) parliamentarians, Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, the PPP leader said the representatives of Waziristan were not present in the National Assembly to approve the budget and voice their concerns of the people of the tribal district. “This is a crime against the people of Waziristan… I was the only one who demanded for their production orders,” he said. “What kind of democracy and freedom is this that an Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav’s interview can be aired but the youth of the tribal areas and former president Asif Zardari’s interview is not,” he said.

Talking about the credibility of the country’s top poll organising authority, the PPP leader said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) must ‘wake up’ and take steps to ensure that free and fair elections take place in the country.

Separately, in a message Bilawal Bhutto said that dictators and their puppets have inflicted brutal harms to the nation’s social, economic and geographical fabric. “Let us reiterate our commitment to democratic ideals on 42nd anniversary of July 5, 1977 when a tin-pot dictator overthrew the government of Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first prime minister elected directly by the people of Pakistan,” he said.

Bilawal said the grains of hatred, ethnicity and religious disharmony sown by Ziaul Haq grew with the menace of drugs and illegal weaponry to maim the society, snatching its democratic and economic powers to resist. “Zulfikar Ali Bhutto awakened the nation and empowered it to dream full exploration of its potential like a vibrant country. The martyred prime minister believed that poverty is man-made not the nature’s job hence he chose downtrodden, marginalised and oppressed majority of the country to lead. Empowerment and electrifying of the weak segments of the society alerted the traditional usurpur cartels whose conspiracy ultimately overthrew Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and hanged him,” he said.

Bilawal said a wave of vicious victimisation was unleashed against the democratic people, especially the PPP leaders and workers. “Thousands of them were arrested, maimed, jailed and martyred. Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto refused to be murdered by the history and proudly chose the gallows proving the conviction and loyalty of a true leader to his nation. Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto launched a political struggle for restoration of democracy and the movements they led had been recorded among the most popular ones in the contemporary world,” he said.

Bilawal reiterated that the PPP will follow the legacy of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto without any rest until complete restoration of democracy. “With the slogan of ‘democracy is the best revenge’, the PPP will continue to fight against the dictatorial elements, remnants and their selected prime minister who is bent upon making every institution as ‘selected’ like himself and destroy the country’s economy, values, democracy and the future potential,” he added. Bilawal further said that victimisation of President Asif Ali Zardari is the continuity of the affects of July 5 overthrow as the war between dictatorial and democratic forces is still raging in the 21st century. “However, the people of the country will be the ultimate winners in this war and those who plotted to unleash poverty, hunger, economic disaster and human rights abuses are going to be defeated to save Pakistan,” he pledged.