Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday demanded that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi retract his statement accusing the Sindh government of fanning provincialism or tender resignation.

The PPP chairman was responding to comments made by Qureshi during a special Senate session, wherein the latter had lashed out at the PPP benches, saying that a party which once ‘stood for the federation now reeks of provincialism’. “This is not the PPP of the past, which was a symbol of the federation. Today, I sense the roots of provincialism in the party,” the foreign minister had said.

Bilawal called the foreign minister’s comments a ‘slap on the face’. “When I talk about Sindh, they accuse me of playing the Sindh card. But when I talk about Balochistan or KP or Gilgit-Baltistan, they don’t accuse me of playing the provincial card?” he wondered. “I want that minister (Qureshi) to take back his statement. If he can’t take it back, then I demand his resignation. Unacceptable!” Bilawal said at a press conference held hours after the Senate session. “We want to save our country and this man is talking about proving political mettle in Sindh? Not everything is about politics. We should avoid playing up these debates during a global health crisis,” he went on to say. “My efforts are in front of the people. When I got the chance on Monday [during the National Assembly session], I put forward my view in front of the people, and look at how we were abused in return. It’s sad,” he added.

Bilawal said Prime Minister Imran Khan should have attended the National Assembly session held on Monday to debate country’s tackling of the coronavirus outbreak. “PM Imran should have attended and explained his point of view because he is the leader of the government […] he wants workers, labourers to go to work but will not step outside to fulfill his basic duty,” he remarked.

Commenting on leader of the opposition Shehbaz Sharif’s absence, the PPP chairman said that the PML-N leader’s absence is justified as he has pre-existing health conditions.

Bilawal also expressed his dismay that the judiciary has not provided justice to the martyrs of May 12 carnage in Karachi even after 13 years. “Dozens of political workers and lawyers were mowed down in Karachi streets in broad daylight by the terrorist stooges of a dictator for their struggle for free and independent judiciary and supremacy of the constitution and law,” he said, on the 13th anniversary of May 12 carnage. He said the dictator resorted to brutal attacks against the political workers and lawyers for demanding free judiciary and majority of those gunned down belonged to PPP.

Paying tributes and salutes to the May 12 carnage martyrs, the PPP chairman said democratic parties and the people of Pakistan are dismayed that the martyrs and their families have not been provided justice though they laid down their lives for restoration of independent judiciary. “How many more decades will be required for justice to them as the case appears to be running on snail’s pace. Delaying justice is tantamount to denial of justice,” he added. Earlier in the day, Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab had also responded to Foreign Minister Qureshi’s comment, saying it is actually the federal government that ‘reeks of prejudice’. Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Wahab said that the PTI-led federal government always talks ‘negatively’. “I want to give a reply to the champions who talk negatively about the 18th Amendment. When National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) was devolved to the Sindh government in 2011, it was only on Rafeequi Shaheed Road and its budget was Rs 700 million. The Sindh government established satellite centres of the institute in several cities and its budget after the 18th Amendment is Rs 11 billion. People from all over Pakistan come to get treated there,” he said, and questioned whether the PTI – which has been in power in KP for the last seven years – could boast of even one such hospital where people of Sindh could go and receive quality treatment for free.