Bilawal to be PPP candidate for prime minister: Nafisa

LAHORE: PPP leader Nafisa Shah has said the party chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, would be the candidate for the prime minister after the upcoming general elections. Nafisa said due to Bilawal's vision, the youth would come forward in the party, adding the PPP would make a comeback in Punjab.

Addressing the media in a 'meet the press, organised by the Lahore Press Club on Wednesday, she said fair and transparent polls are not possible without an impartial Election Commission.

To a question, she claimed Nawaz Sharif has never bothered about the sanctity of vote and is only worried about his black money that he wanted to protect. She said the disqualification of Nawaz is a result of his apathetic attitude towards the parliament to which he never showed any respect. The PML-N government couldn’t even complete the quorum of the National Assembly during the last four and a half years.

Nafisa said the former prime minister should stop raising a hue and cry over ‘Mujhay Kyu Nikala’ and must answer the queries posed by the court, rather than criticising Wajid Zia. She said under the PML-N government, the situation has worsened, adding a person who himself conspired four times against the elected prime ministers is speaking about sanctity of vote.

Criticising the Punjab chief minister, she said rather than claiming to turn Karachi into Paris, he must put his own house in order and improve the situation in Lahore, “which is merely confined to Raiwind”. She also said the affairs of the 56 companies in Punjab under the chief minister are before everyone.

Criticising PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Nafisa said he dissolved the Ehtesab Commission, which could have exposed the irregularities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, to protect the corruption of his provincial ministers.

Meanwhile, Nafisa also visited the daily Jang office and expressed complete solidarity with the Jang Group, saying her party stood for press freedom and would never accept any restrictions. Chaudhry Manzoor, Munawar Anjum, Faiza Malik and other party leaders accompanied her during the visit. During her visit to the Jang office, Nafisa held also separate meetings with senior journalists Bedar Bakht and Suhail Warraich.