PPP wants peaceful, tolerant Pakistan: Bilawal

HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party’s Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said the PPP wanted to establish a society based on peace and tolerance where equal distribution of wealth could be ensured for well being of all the citizens.

Addressing his maiden public meeting in Hyderabad on Wednesday night, Bilawal criticized the PPP's political opponents and narrated the development works carried out in Sindh. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said his party supported democracy but never stood by with Nawaz Sharif.

Speaking to reporters in Hala, Bilawal Bhutto stressed that there should be across-the- board accountability.  While responding to a question, the PPP chairperson also spoke about Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairperson Imran Khan saying the latter would soon retire from politics on his own.

“The PPP is a federal, democratic and republican party. The PPP wants to make Pakistan a sovereign and strong state," he said. The PPP chairman said the Sindh government had been working to improve the education and health sectors while special focus was being given to the girls’ education by  offering different incentives.

"The new hospitals, trauma centers, kidney, liver and cardiac facilities which earlier existed only in Karachi are being established in rest of Sindh," he told. Bilawal paid tributes to the martyrs of Oct 18, 2007, Karsaz incident in which a terrorist attack killed around 180 people and injured 500 others.

He recalled the political struggles and sacrifices of  Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his mother former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He said Bhutto preferred martyrdom but did not bow down his head before a military dictator while his mother despite threats to her life returned from exile to Pakistan and embarked upon a movement to restore democracy in the country.

He said some people use corruption only as a slogan and they think that end of corruption would provide a solution to all the problems. "But they don't know that corruption is a symbol of a rotten and exploitative system.”

The PPP leader decried that the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) was not providing due share of water to Sindh, pointing out IRSA's recent announcement of reducing Sindh's share by 20% to 30% for Rabi crop season.

"This will cause huge losses for agriculture in the province," he warned. Biawal acknowledged that though the country faced a shortage of water, he blamed IRSA for its alleged unjust water sharing.