Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Saturday said he believes 2020 is the year of ‘tabdeeli’ (change).

“The way the PTI government has forcefully thrust this IMF deal on us, with the way taxes are being raised, the way life is being taken out of our economy, because of that we believe the people of this country cannot tolerate this government for very long,” he told a private TV channel in an exclusive interview. “I believe the most important thing is that people are on the same page and right now the Pakistani public is very tired of this government,” he added.

Bilawal said opposition parties and the people of Pakistan have several options, of which the most talked about is in-house change and secondly the fresh elections. When asked whether he thinks any deal is being made in London amid several prominent personalities present in the British capital, the PPP co-chairman said, “I do not know anything, I believe these are conspiratorial talks. Decision makers should only be the people of Pakistan.”

Referring to his party’s decision to launch a protest march next month against the PTI-led government, Bilawal said his target is “taking the condition of the economy and our party’s stance to the public”. “Our struggle against this inflation and the IMF budget will acquire a new angle during the march,” he said. “As soon as I said this, Imran Khan’s NAB sent us a notice, tried to put us under pressure, tried to threaten us but we are not ready to back down,” he added.

Bilawal criticised the PTI-led government’s IMF deal, saying the government is ‘incapable’ of negotiating the deal. He said his party has already rejected the PTI-IMF deal for the way it ‘compromised on the rights of the people of Pakistan and attacked the economic sovereignty of the country’. He called for the government to leave the deal and renegotiate it afresh and to bring forward a ‘people-friendly plan according to Pakistan’s economic sovereignty’. Bilawal denied he has knowledge of any deal made between the government and Maulana Fazlur Rehman last year.