Bilawal wants ‘jiyala’ to become KP CM

CHITRAL: Urging people to vote for his party to implement its election manifesto, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday vowed to spare no effort to work for the uplift of hitherto underdeveloped areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, if voted to power.

Addressing a convention of the party workers in Chitral, Bilawal said he wanted a Jiyala to become the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Shedding light on his plans for the province, Bilawal said the PPP would establish roads and hospitals in KP to facilitate the local people if it was returned to power. “It is imperative for us to have a government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to fulfil the dreams that we have for the people and make progress in health and education sectors,” he said.

“During the Pakistan Democratic Movement government, we had intended to help the country resolve the crises faced by the people, but we were unsuccessful in doing so because our allies were fixated on personal revenge,” he added.

“The gift of wheat subsidy given to the people of Chitral by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto will be restored permanently,” he promised. He pledged that former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) would be granted the status of tax-free zones. Bilawal said his party, if voted to power, would establish hospitals to provide free of charge treatment to the people of KP. “If the PPP government can provide free of charge treatment at hospitals in the desert of Thar in Sindh, we can do the same in the mountains of Chitral.”

He said the people of Chitral should be provided employment opportunities that were proportionate to their abilities. “We will establish roads that will connect Chitral to China, Afghanistan and the rest of Central Asia. It is a difficult task to achieve, but we will turn this dream into a reality.”

He added: “We can utilise the water resources to generate power. We will keep a special quota in the Benazir Income Support Programme for regions like Chitral.”

He said that those who were engaging in traditional politics had started making claims that they would alter the 18th Amendment and National Finance Commission award. “They want to snatch the rights of people of Chitral and give them to Islamabad instead,” he said.

“The ministries that are currently in Islamabad will be shut and reopened at their proper locations so that the money of the people is spent on them only. One hundred billion rupees can be saved annually if we implement the 18th Amendment in its true sense,” he said.