Can’t back suo moto and contempt cases against politicians: Bilawal

KARACHI: Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Thursday that unfortunately Pakistan’s global impression is linked with terrorism.

“Whenever I speak to the international media, they ask me about terrorism and extremism. I try to present Pakistan’s stance but we have not sold our version well,” he said. PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto was talking to Hamid Mir in Geo News Programme ‘Capital Talk’.

About fake news, Bilawal said he does not want to comment on US President Donald Trump’s statement but added that in Pakistan it is nothing new. He claimed that the PPP was always the target of fake news ever since the time of ZA Bhutto. He said that it was alleged that Asif Zardari planted a bomb on someone’s leg which led to the government’s dismissal. There were several others like the MemoGate.

About an anchor who is being blamed for fake news and was summoned by the chief justice of Pakistan, Bilawal said the fake news has become much easier to create and circulate and we have to strategise ways to counter it.

“I feel uncomfortable when the state decides about the veracity of news and in giving punishment if the news is not correct. We have to create awareness and educate our masses over the issue while at the same time educate the media,” he said.

About attacks on freedom of expression, he said the media has to create credibility through its actions. Bilawal denied reports claiming that Faryal Talpur will be next chairperson of the Senate, saying she would not even contest the Senate elections. He said Faryal and the party would decide about her future.

About the allegations of the PPP becoming a pro-Establishment party, he denied the impression, saying the change in Balochistan took place when the PML-N MPAs resigned from their own party which had ignored the province. “Now they are making excuses to cover their failure,” he said.

About the PPP prospects from Balochistan, he said in the last elections we clinched Senate seats from there. There are positive sentiments for the PPP in that province, even those MPAs who belong to other parties, prefer Asif Ali Zardari.

Unfortunately the Punjab is failing to comprehend the prevailing mistrust in Balochistan against the policies of Punjab. The reflection was the smooth change of government there, despite the majority of PML-N and its allies and the fact that the PML-N ministers and MPAs voted against their party. Even the PML-N allies in the federal government also voted against the PML-N. The majority people in Balochistan are against the PML-N because they have used the province as a publicity stunt only and have not delivered on its promises.

To Hamid Mir’s question that the PPP is accused of carrying out massive horse trading in Balochistan for the change of the government , Bilawal said it is not possible when our party does not even have a single MPA there. The change in Balochistan government came through a democratic process which is a major political set back for the PML-N and now they are trying to cover it up through making allegations.

Continuing on the Senate elections, Bilawal said it is a difficult task. Winning the Senate seats is dependent on the strength in the provincial assemblies but we outperformed others in the last Senate elections. We believe this time around we will also be able to perform beyond the expectations of the people.

The PML-N in Punjab is in total disarry as the provincial MPAs have submitted their resignations to the spiritual leaders and we will try to draw benefit from it . We will also try to use the infighting in the House of Sharifs to our advantage as well.

He said the current Senate chairman Raza Rabbani has applied for the Senate ticket and the process is under consideration. Bilawal refused to explain how the PPP will get Senate seats from KP, though he said it was an uphill task and promised good performance.

He denied the impression that the governance of Punjab is better than that of Sindh, saying the Punjab government is showing development in expensive advertisements, while the PPP is silently working.

“You can inform Shahbaz on the good condition of the Larkana roads. Our biggest challenge was health as the media focused on Thar. We reduced the infant-maternal mortality rate by 50 per cent which is far better than that of Punjab,” he said.

“We have also opened state-of-the-art cardiac hospitals in Larkana, Tando Mohammad Khan and Sehwan and will spread their network to each district of the province. All these hospitals, he said are providing treatment free of cost. We are alleviating poverty through the Benazir Income Support Programme. We have set up water filtration plants in drought-hit Tharparkar and are also lining the canals of Sindh, besides working on the K4 project to overcome water shortage in Karachi,” he said.

About Karachi’s garbage issue, Bilawal said they were trying to address it and you should ask other political parties who were in the government before about their performance in the past. “We have placed garbage bins in the city and in areas which are under the PPP control. We have also introduced the cyber knife technology in Sindh and there are only 250 machines in the world,” he said.

Defending Dr Asim’s appointment as the Sindh’s HEC chief, he said Dr Asim was politically victimised. He was doing good work when he was arrested. About Rao Anwar, the PPP chairman said the party does not support individual officers and added he was very concerned about the encounters happening across the country. “Our counterterrorism strategy is based on these encounters but this cannot continue,” he said, adding as soon as this tragic incident happened I immediately took action.

He said two years ago we had removed the same Police officer when he arrested an opposition politician. He said the extrajudicial killings are a real problem which cannot be justified. “About the National Action Plan, he said I have repeatedly been saying they are not being implemented. I even criticised the specific minister on this issue and thankfully the PML-N also concedes that the minister invited the leaders of banned outfit to his office. But I think we have outperformed other provinces in NAP implementation,” he said. We have also worked on the Madressah reform, he said.

Bilawal said the rate of crime, terrorism and kidnappings in Sindh has dropped drastically. He said the PML-N has never talked about judicial reforms, but the PPP always advocated it. Nawaz also opposed judicial reforms in the Charter of Democracy. Now when Nawaz has been convicted they are talking about the judicial reforms.

He said there is difference between constructive criticism and running campaign against the judiciary and attacking the State institutions of Pakistan. “If democracy is to be strengthened, judiciary needs reformation. When ZAB, Benazir and members of my family could not get justice, what about the common man. The civil society, politicians and the judiciary have to agree on the judicial reforms,” he said.

About the disqualification of PML-N Senator Nehal Hashmi on contempt of court charges, he said in his personal opinion as a democrat he is uncomfortable with the use of contempt of court selective, while ignoring the person who abused and arrested judges and the person who attacked the Supreme Court. He said there should be same standards of applying the contempt of court punishment across the board.

Bilawal said there should be same law for everybody. He said: “I think contempt of court and suo moto should be used sparingly. I believe the integrity of judiciary should not depend solely on the contempt of law.”

The PPP Chairman said he had declared Musharraf as his mother’s killer on December 27, 2017. We have a dying declaration of Benazir in which she held the former military ruler as responsible if anything happened to her and you (Hamid Mir) are a witness to it.

He said there was a JIT and the UN investigations which corroborate the fact that Musharraf deliberately and purposefully sabotaged Benazir’s security. It is also on record that Musharraf had told Benazir that “her security depends on her cooperation to him”. The crime scene of both October 18 and December 27 were deliberately washed to destroy the evidence. Musharraf is an absconder and who is scared of facing the court of law because he knows he is guilty.

To a question that why the PPP government did not do anything tangible for her murder inquiry and trial, Bilawal claimed “we would have caught the killers if we were not in the government,” but the PPP abides by laws and secondly we wanted to save democracy.

Despite this, he said this we have done more in the Benazir assassination case than any other government has done in case of any high profile assassination. Tragically, there have been many assassinations in our history. How could we be held responsible for not doing enough when the judges were changed for as many as 10 to 11 times in the case and they even declared terrorists as innocent. The case will be decided whenever Musharraf returns, said Bilawal, adding we did everything under the law.

To yet another question, he denied allowing Musharraf to flee Pakistan like Nawaz did to save democracy. “He is the killer of my mother and I could not have let him leave,” Bilawal said. The PPP Chairperson said that Musharraf himself fled the country and the interim government was placed and we could not do anything then.

When asked if he would bring Musharraf back if the PPP forms the government, Bilawal said I want justice. My biggest desire is that this judiciary should give me justice which will make the judiciary, country and democracy stronger.

When Hamid Mir asked the young chairman about the party’s ideology, if the PPP has abandoned the leftist politics, he said our land reforms, nationalisation, Benazir Bhutto’s struggle for human and women rights, labour reforms, devolution and the increase in pension amounts are all part of result of our ideology. We are the torch bearers of Social Democracy, my mother also advocated it. In the Social democracy, the government is like a mother, where the basic necessities of healthcare, education and employment of the people are delivered by the system. This system reduces the rich-poor divide by taking more from the affluent class and redistributing among the poor echelons of the society. When we refer to Social Democracy, we want a social democratic Pakistan that is peaceful, prosperous and progressive.

To another question about Imran’s popularity, the PPP Chairman said when the age of the voters was reduced to benefit Imran Khan in 2002, it in fact benefited the PPP. “I practise ideological politics, while Imran Khan perpetuates politics of hate. Globally the politics of hate is on the rise which may have short term benefits, but it will harm the country in the long run. I desire constructive and positive engagement of the youth and to make them stakeholders in democracy and economy and this is the major difference between our politics,” he said.

Responding to a question on the future political scenario, he said many people feel about coalition being set up to emerge in the wake of elections, but the PPP has very strong chances of success. The PPP will not only retain its seats in the rural Sindh but will also improve its representation in the urban areas of the province. In Balochistan, there is a pro-PPP sentiment and we will clinch seats from there as well as from the southern Punjab who have serious problems with the “Takht-e-Lahore”.

He said we have won by-elections from Chitral and Upper Dir and will have a major share of seats from the KP as well. The PPP has bright prospects during and after elections, Bilawal said.

To a question about alliance with the PTI, Bilawal said “I cannot disclose our future strategy but we have the flexibility of working with all. We successfully ran the government for five years with all type of opposition groups and successfully delivered.”

Over the PML-N’s Kashmir policy, Bilawal said that he has been critical of the government’s foreign policy, including ties with India and the Kashmir issue. He said Nawaz has historically betrayed the Kashmir issue and cultivated personal relationships as compared to PPP’s policy of institutional relationships.

He said that Nawaz went on Modi’s inaugural but refrained from meeting the Hurriyat Conference leadership which was a severe let down. Now a generation of Kashmiris is offering resistance against India and they are being blinded by pellet guns. He said it took Nawaz Sharif three-years to react to that which was disastrous for our Kashmir Policy.