Bilawal warns govt of trouble if ToRs not accepted

LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has reiterated that the government must accept the terms of reference (ToRs), proposed by the opposition parties, otherwise it will find itself in great trouble.

He was addressing a meeting of organising committees of PPP Central Punjab and southern Punjab at Bilawal House on Friday. Bilawal said the opposition parties wanted to resolve the issue of ToRs with the government through dialogue. He told the participants that he was seeing good days ahead for the party very soon. He said Punjab would soon witness a big change of situation.

Bilawal claimed that the PPP had won Peshawar bye-elections but the results were changed at the eleventh hour. He directed the organising committees of the party to go to every town, village and city, make a schedule in this regard and take him along wherever they want to address the party workers.

He asked the party leaders to contact the disgruntled workers and win them back through all means. “Remove their misgivings and address their complaints so that they could become active again for the party’s reorganisation,” he said.

Termed Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government anti-farmers, Bilawal said the rulers were responsible for large-scale economic exploitation of the people, especially peasants. He said the PPP government would never allow rulers to commit any further economic murder of peasants and workers, and would force them to change their policies. He directed the organising committees to report back to him after visiting the entire province at the earliest so that the future strategy of the party could be chalked out well before the upcoming general elections.

Former prime ministers Yusuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, and other leaders including Rana Farooq Saeed, Shaukat Basra, Tochi Khan, Nawazish Pirzada, Chaudhry Manzoor, Nadeem Asghar Kaira and Jameel Soomro attended the meeting.

Agencies add: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said his party wanted across-the-board accountability on Panama leaks issue. He said the Supreme Court had rejected the government ToRs and now it would have to sit with the opposition and draft the terms of reference.

Referring to Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali’s response to the government’s letter, the PPP chairman termed it another loss for the government. Bilawal said accountability should begin from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Meanwhile, Yusuf Raza Gilani rejected reports circulating on social media regarding the release of his son Ali Haider Gilani after three years of detention by Taliban. “All people on social media are not our friends.

There may be some other people on social media who do not like us,” the ex-premier said in response to a question whether ransom money was paid for the release of his son. Speaking to reporters outside his Lahore residence, Gilani said his son was recovered after a successful military operation which was carried out by the US and Afghan forces on Afghanistan soil. Steven Spielberg offers to make movie on Ali Haider Gilani’s captivity.