Daily Times

BARNALA: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had forgotten the Charter of Democracy (CoD) and the parliament was being given no importance.

Addressing a public meeting in Azad Kashmir on the occasion of 63rd birthday of slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, he said the country needed a prime minister like Bhutto. He said there was no need for the prime minister at all if the country could survive without him for more than a month. He said that Bhutto made the impossible possible and every aspect of her life was exemplary. He stated that her politics catered to farmers, workers, youth and the deprived.

Zardari said that he would soon visit Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. He stated that he conducted the biggest public gathering in the history of Rahim Yar Khan. He stated that the institutions of the country were suffering because the prime minister failed to implement the Charter of Democracy. He said that democracy existed in the country in papers, as the mode of governance was similar to monarchy. “Bhutto’s son wants an economic system based on equality,” Zardari said, adding that the people should be provided education and health facilities free. He said that people should be given jobs.

Zardari said that people’s money should not be wasted on construction of metro bus projects; it should be spent on betterment of people in line with the ideology of Bhutto. He said the country needed a prime minister who could challenge the world. He stated that Pakistan would not take lectures on peace from the “butcher of Gujarat”. If the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) succeeds in the elections in Azad Kashmir, he said, it would be considered Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory in the region.

Prime Minister Sharif is recuperating in London where he underwent an open-heart surgery last month.

“I want to say that stay united. If you do not unite, your opponent will be stronger,” he said, adding that Kashmir election was actually a referendum against the forces that preferred personal and business interest to the Kashmir cause. He warned that if the PML-N wins the Kashmir election by force and rigging, it would be assumed that Kashmiris supported anti-Kashmir and Modi-friendly policies. “If the masses want Bhutto’s Pakistan, they should support me,” he said.

Martyrs and ideologues never die, he said. He said the PPP was still a force to be reckoned, but people were doing negative propaganda against it. He said that every aspect of Bhutto’s life was unique. He said that she became the chairperson of the largest political party of the country and a symbol of struggle against dictatorships. She was the first Muslim woman prime minister in the world.