Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday vowed to protect the 18th Amendment at all costs.

“Put my whole family in jail, but PPP will not compromise on 18th Amendment … and we will not change our stance on freedom of speech,” he said while addressing a press conference here. He further his mother Benazir Bhutto struggled for 30 years to restore the 1973 constitution in its original spirit and the PPP managed to fulfill her vision in the shape of the 18th Amendment. “The amendment is now being targeted as some quarters are making efforts to reverse it. Our ‘selected’ prime minister also issues statements against the 18th Amendment,” he said. The PPP will not compromise on the 1973 Constitution and the 18th Amendment, he said.

“I will expose hypocrisy of this puppet government in a series of anti-government rallies throughout the country,” the PPP chairman announced. “We fought against dictatorships of Zia and Musharraf with the help of press clubs and God forbid if we have to fight against any other dictator, then I know that PPP and all press clubs of this country will stand together in this fight,” he said. “We’ll have to struggle for democracy like we did during dictatorships as people’s basic rights are not protected under this government’s rule,” he added.

Bilawal announced a countrywide mass contact drive to ‘expose the government’ and said the people will have to struggle for their democratic, human and economic rights. “The PPP believes that democracy is the solution of all issues,” he said, adding that he believes society needs an atmosphere of political freedom. “Our selected prime minister is unable to run the country, he cannot become a role model,” he added.

Bilawal termed the current political situation in the country ‘a reversal of democracy’. “We are on a reverse course. Today, people and media do not have as much freedom as they did during the tenure of the PPP,” he said.

The PPP chairman said the PTI government is doing opposition’s politics rather than working for the masses. “And if the government and opposition both will play opposition, then who will rule the country? Who’ll govern the country? This will drift the masses away from democracy,” he said.

He said for the first time in the history of the country, over the last decade, a civilian government shifted charge to another civilian government. He credited the PPP for the transition and said that it was a success of democratic parties that the parliament remained intact. “Though a very weak one, but the parliamentary system is still working. It is a success of democracy.”

He regretted that the country is facing hardships because individuals are being focused on instead of the institutions, and because ‘extremism was given space in elections’. “If a free and fair election is not held, people lose hope in the democratic order and let their anger out in other forms, which are harmful to the society,” he warned.

Bilawal said it is believed that if the democratic transition is completed for a third time, then the anti-democratic forces and dictators will find it very difficult to attack democracy and become illegitimate leaders of the country again. “No matter how weak the current system may be, it is still a democratic system,” he said. “However, we have paid a high price for Imran Khan to become the ‘selected prime minister’. By doing so, we have set wrong precedence, we have told the youth that might is right,” he added.