Daily Times

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday said PML-N’s candidate for leader of the opposition in Senate, Azam Nazeer Tarar, was a “controversial” choice.

Bilawal’s spoke to the press following PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz’s media briefing, where she criticised PPP for sacrificing everything for a “minor office.”

The PPP chairman, in his response, said that “a political party was stubbornly issuing remarks and taking a hardline stance”, leading PPP leaders to believe that their party was being pushed against the wall.

Bilawal said it was a parliamentary tradition and a historic fact that the single largest party in the Senate had the right to get its candidate elected as Senate chairman and Leader of the Opposition.

“How do you expect, given that we have the majority in the Senate, that I ask my party members to make PML-N’s Azam Nazeer Tarar Leader of the Opposition and not Yousaf Raza Gillani?” he asked.

Bilawal added that the victory of Yousuf Gillani on March 3 was a historical one and it was the first defeat of the “selected regime” at the hands of the opposition.

Responding to a question, he said he would like PDM to remain united as he had laid the foundation for it.

The PPP chairman claimed he had coined the term “selected” — and that he knew when to use it.

He said the opposition’s struggle against the election of Senate chairman would continue, as he thanked Awami Nation Party (ANP) and Jamat-e-Islami for their support in getting Gillani the office of the Senate Opposition leader.

He stressed that the Senate was a polling station and the proceedings on the day were part of the election process and can be challenged in a court of law.

The statement from the PPP leader comes in the backdrop of the Islamabad High Court rejecting the party’s petition challenging the victory of Sadiq Sanjrani for the top office.

“We are of the view that the presiding officer gave a biased and controversial decision and the post was snatched from him illegally.”

Bilawal also termed the recently-promulgated State Bank of Pakistan ordinance dangerous for the people of Pakistan.

“The ordinance is illegal and an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty.”

He said that the PPP seeks for SBP to be independent and wants it to make decisions that are in the interest of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan.

He demanded the government withdraw the ordinance.

Bilawal then lashed out at the government over rising inflation in the country.

He said that the government made the special assistant on petroleum “a scapegoat” in the petrol fiasco, whereas it was the whole cabinet that made decisions.

“We demand that all those ministers who were part of the decision-making process step down.”

He said that was “a historical scandal” and we will not accept this robbery.