Ministers are in disarray: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Thursday said the federal cabinet is not on same page as Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi agreed with him on his speech in the National Assembly other day while Finance Minister Asad Umar criticised him.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari through tweeted on Thursday, “Finance min called my speech ‘mulk dushman’ even though foreign minister agreed with everything I said. So the cabinet is clearly not on the same page. He took issue with my English, even though FM spoke in English. General Umar’s offspring are in no position to lecture ghairat.”

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari tweet came up after the speech of Finance Minister Asad Umar who criticised his (Bilawal) speech in the National Assembly. While in a press talk outside the Parliament House, PPP Secretary Information Senator Maula Buksh Chandio and Senator Mustafa Nawaz Kokhar, Spokesman for Bilawal Bhutto Zardari accused Finance Minister Asad Umar of making personal attacks on the party chairman instead of replying to the questions which Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asked from the government in his speech. Senator Mustafa Nawaz Kokhar said in his speech Bilawal Bhutto Zardari talked about the situation at the borders, foreign policy and other problems including the economic issues. He said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari questioned about the reasons of the failures of the foreign policy, why the economy of the country was going worse since the PTI had come into power and about the burden of inflation shifted towards the poor people of the country but instead of replying, Finance Minister Asad Umar made the personal attacks on the PPP chairman.

He said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari election campaign was different from the others as he did not make any personal attacks against anyone but presented his programme to the people but the minister always made the personal attacks. “We did not want to talk on the role of the father of Asad Umar as the PPP did not believe in politics of personalities,” he said. PPP Information Secretary Senator Maula Buksh Chandio said the remarks of Finance Minister Asad Umar were condemnable as they were happy on the sacking of Fiazul Hassan Chohan but it seemed that everyone in the government looked like Fiazul Hassan Chohan.

He said the finance minister did not know about the economy and he had to leave his job from a company due to his incompetence. Senator Maula Buksh Chandio said the economy and foreign policy are completely in disarray. “All the governments have gone with comfort but this government will not go with ease and will face the wrath of the people,” he said. He said the government has planned to sale 50 public sector entities but has not told about future of the employees of these entities. “The policy of the finance minister to sale everything be these government vehicles or buffaloes to correct the country’s economy,” he said.

In reply to a question, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Kokhar said National Assembly Speaker stopped the speech of Ahsan Iqbal and expunged some of his remarks but he did not expunge the personal remarks of Asad Umar.