KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, while commenting on the ongoing protests against election rigging, said on Saturday that political opponents could not blackmail them by levelling false allegations.
“Those parties which cannot win the polls without rigging are now protesting against election manipulation today without providing any solid evidence,” he said during a media interaction.
He asked the protesting parties to approach legal forums to address their rigging claims.
The PPP chairman said that religious, linguistic and sectarian terrorism were “our red lines.”
“We will not tolerate these things, neither in the metropolis nor in the province. Those parties who want to promote terrorism, it will be their mistake. We will not allow this to happen here,” he warned.
Bilawal said the PPP would not forget the injustices meted to it during the recent general elections and martyrdom of Jiyalas.
He mentioned that the opposition parties, protesting in the name of rigging, have never won elections in Sindh, while Imran Khan wanted Shehbaz Sharif to become the prime minister.
According to the press release issued by the Media Cell of Bilawal House in Karachi, the PPP chairman visited the house of Abdul Rehman, a 12-year-old party worker who was martyred in an attack by armed political activists during the recent election campaign in New Karachi.
Speaking to the media on the occasion, Bilawal announced that his party’s upcoming government in Sindh would form a joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate all violent incidents during the elections. “By giving exemplary punishment to those involved in the violence as per the law, we will bring justice to our workers as well as all other political workers so that such incidents do not happen again,” he said.
The PPP chairman said that the 2024 elections were not much different from the 2018 elections. “I raised my objections to the election in front of the whole of Pakistan after the [party’s] Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting.”
He said that according to Forms-45, PPP candidates had won PS-124 and PS-125 but candidates from other parties were declared successful in those constituencies.
He further said that the PPP would fight its case on the relevant forums on electoral discrepancies. “I hope we will get justice and if we don’t, we will chalk out future course of action,” he added.
The PPP chairman said that those who are protesting unnecessarily in the name of alleged rigging in Sindh have not won a single election in the past. “It is strange that parties that cannot win elections without Dhandhali are now protesting against Dhandhali,” he said, adding that these people are not against rigging but are asking for a free hand to engage in rigging.
He pointed out that in the 2002, 2013 and 2018 elections too, these parties had lost to the PPP.
Addressing the protesting parties, Bilawal asked them not to make mere allegations but to present evidence. “Tell us which constituencies and polling stations experienced rigging. Has my Larkana seat been rigged from where I won with a lead of one lakh?” he asked.
Responding to a question, the PPP chairman said that now the Sunni Ittehad Council (PTI) should tell the truth to its workers that it does not have the majority to form the government, adding that the PTI never tried to stop Shehbaz Sharif from becoming the prime minister by holding political talks with the PPP.
“Shehbaz Sharif would also have to extend thanks to the PTI after becoming the PM,” Bilawal said while taking a dig at the Imran-founded party.
“The PTI founder may have decided not to fight against Shehbaz. We are giving votes to the party which approached us [to form the next government in the Centre],” Bilawal said.
The PPP chairman said that writing a letter against Pakistan to the IMF will not accomplish anything. However, after this letter, the real face of the person has been revealed in front of the public who love his politics more than the national interest.
Later, the PPP chairman visited the residence of the party’s Information Secretary Shiraz Awan for PS-99 in North Karachi and condoled the killing of his nephew Abdul Wahid Awan.
