PPP holds rallies today over Bilawal’s response to India: Sharjeel

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has announced holding countrywide rallies on Sunday (today) to express solidarity with PPP Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari over his response to his Indian counterpart Jaishankar during the briefing at the United Nations.

The PPP has also appealed to other political parties to participate in the rallies to express solidarity with the statement of the country’s foreign minister because this is not an issue of a single party but a matter of honour of the entire country.

The announcement was made at a joint press conference addressed by Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Shazia Atta Marri and Sindh Minister for Information and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon. Talking to the media, Shazia said Jaishankar’s statement was a futile and irresponsible statement against Pakistan, on which Bilawal gave him a strong, bold and befitting response.

She said Pakistan wants to have good bilateral relations with all South Asian countries, pointing out that the PPP has always supported better ties with the neighbouring countries, but the current Indian government is only promoting hatred among the people of the region. She also said that at first Bilawal did not criticise or talk against the Indian government at the UN, adding that Pakistan knows how to respond to such irresponsible remarks by the Indian government. The federal minister said that calling Pakistan a centre of terrorism is propaganda by the Indian government, and we strongly condemn such remarks of Jaishankar.

She pointed out that Narendra Modi’s government has been attempting to associate Muslims with terrorism, saying that despite being a secular country, India’s government has been suppressing Indian Muslims, violating their fundamental rights and following the Hindutva ideology.

Shazia said that when Modi was Gujarat’s chief minister, he had perpetrated the massacre of Muslims, and now extremists in India are protesting against Bilawal.

“India’s foreign minister made a wrong statement against Pakistan. We want to remind Modi’s government that we’re not afraid of their terrorism and threats. Our decency should not be perceived as our weakness.”

She said PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had always fought the case of Kashmiris at the UN, and today his grandson is also fighting for their right of self-determination.

She also said the Kashmir issue should have been resolved in 1947 as per the resolutions of the UN. She added that the Modi government has made the Kashmir issue more complicated.

Memon said on the occasion that Bilawal had responded to his Indian counterpart in a bold manner, adding that the whole of India had been shaken by the response.

He said passenger trains were set on fire at the behest of Modi in India, and the clues of all the terrorist activities that have happened in Pakistan linked to India and the Modi government.

Censuring Jaishankar’s statement, he said the Indian foreign minister’s malicious propaganda campaign at the UN was highly regrettable and condemnable, and the response of Bilawal was courageous and bold against false accusation of India.

He also said that the longest curfew in the history of the world was imposed in Kashmir during Modi’s government.

He added that the Modi government had been committing human rights violations against innocent Muslims of India within their own country.