LARKANA: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday used an event marking the 38th death anniversary of PPP founder and executed prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to lash out at the “corrupt” and “failed” incumbent government, saying that the country had not made any progress during the past two years when it came to countering terrorism.
Rulers who came into power through rigged elections have failed to even give a proper foreign policy, he said while addressing party activists at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh.
He said that the necessity of establishing military courts arose because the government had failed to implement the National Action Plan (NAP). “I have constantly been saying that NAP should be properly implemented and action taken against terrorists in Punjab if we want to get rid of them, but nobody listened,” he lamented. He said he had asked for forming the National Parliamentary Committee that should look into the issue. “The rulers are busy in corruption, hence they cannot do anything except making assets.”
Bilawal said the Nawaz League had been making tall claims of development all over the country, which was actually confined to advertisements alone and costing billions of rupees every month. He said that if development had actually taken place then why the foreign loans were increasing. “Why the IMF loans are not decreasing? Why imports and exports have declined? Why electricity load shedding has increased, and why profit-making institutions are being privatised?”
He said that poverty was increasing, mills and factories being closed and labourers sleeping on empty stomachs. Bilawal urged the people, especially women, to vote for him to make Pakistan corruption-free.
Addressing the gathering, PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said that he would form the next government by appointing a prime minister, just like he made the Senate chairman despite not having sufficient number of assembly seats.
He said that during his 15-day stay in Punjab, his opponents spent sleepless nights. He said that soon he would visit every division and district of Punjab. He said he was not afraid of those who “keep an evil eye on the PPP”. “We have not written any book against atrocities committed against us; [rather] we have a philosophy, thought and programme for the people.”
He claimed that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a brainchild of his PPP on which “they” were working now.
He said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had initiated the atomic programme, credit for which was taken by Nawaz Sharif. He said that electricity tariff had been doubled but power was not available. “Now water is also becoming scarce.”
The former president said the nation was waiting for the court to announce its verdict in the Panama leaks case.
