Electoral contest would be with PML-S, PTI: Bilawal

MULTAN: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday said the perception that his party was following pro-establishment narrative was wrong. “The PPP is an anti-establishment party and follows its traditional stance against establishment,” he added.

He was responding to a question posed by The News that the PPP has always followed anti-establishment narrative but the party is now in step with the establishment.

He said the erroneous view was developed when the PPP detached itself from Nawaz Sharif. Bilawal said the people were not concerned with why Nawaz had been ousted. “The PML-N [Nawaz] has vanished. It is only PML-S [Shahbaz] only,” he told The News at Bilawal House after his press conference.

When The News asked him whether Asif Ali Zardari is a candidate for prime minister’s office and it he is then how the PPP would accommodate the Seraiki region which is its main focus after Sindh in the next general elections, Bilawal said, “My father is also Seraiki,” and moved towards other journalists.

Earlier, the PPP chairman, during the press conference, said the PPP’s contest in the upcoming general elections would be with PML-S and PTI.

Bilawal asked the people of southern Punjab to join hands with the PPP and said Nawaz had failed to deliver anything except the metro bus project which involved massive corruption. “The PPP is the party of peasants, workers, students and masses,” he said and added that it had first elected the National Assembly speaker and later the prime minister from southern Punjab.

Bilawal said media had criticised his party for raising voice for the region to end backwardness. “Now all political parties including PML-N and PTI are talking about southern Punjab’s deprivations,” he said, describing it a political victory of PPP.

He said both PML-N and PTI had same ideology and policies that abhorred the masses and favoured the elite, adding that the two parties had same candidates and manifesto too. Bilawal also claimed that the PML-N had failed in curbing loadshedding and people always complained about power outages when he visited towns and cities.

In response to a question, he said the PPP was demanding a fully-empowered Election Commission which could hire staff without political interference. Responding to a query about the PPP’s repeated failures in by-elections, he said by-polls were not a criteria and indicator of popularity. “When political scene is changing on day-to-day basis, you cannot predict anything exactly,” Bilawal added. Later in the day, the PPP chairman said Nawaz had been ousted from politics forever and the PML-N changed into PML-S.

Addressing a public meeting near Qasba Marral on Multan-Bahawalpur Road, Bilawal said Nawaz had failed to deliver during his five-year rule, while Imran Khan lost public backing. The “Player Khan” had considered his ATM pious and wise, he added.