Jail for politicians, NRO for banned outfits: Bilawal

KARACHI: The Chairman Pakistan People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has said the present system is not acceptable to him where there is accountability, political vengeance, and imprisonment for politicians and NRO for the banned organizations.

Bilawal said the National Accountability (NAB) is used to break political parties. He said the government was formed through political engineering and Rawalpindi had always turned out to be Karbala for the Bhutto clan.

The PPP chairman stated this on Tuesday as he started his train journey having the title Karavan-e-Bhutto to Larkana. A large number of activists and leaders of the PPP, including Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and provincial ministers have accompanied Bilawal Bhutto in his train journey. A large crowd of party supporters, activists and leaders saw him off from the Cantonment Railway Station amid a show of flags and sloganeering in favour of the PPP.

The train made its first stop at the Landhi railway station where Bilawal addressed the enthusiastic supporters present in large numbers. Addressing the crowd, Bilawal said the NAB was established by the dictator to conduct political engineering and the bureau continues to do so till the present day. He said the NAB is being used by the rulers to remove him from politics after a conspiracy to do so through rigging in the general elections failed. The PPP chairman said NAB could not frighten him into silence. He claimed the present rulers are using the NAB against their political opponents. He said the rulers didn’t tolerate the opposition at all as they are the products of the Pervez Musharraf regime. He said his presence in the assembly has caused lot of trouble to the government. Bilawal said he has hardly embarked on the train journey and Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ministers have started to scream.

The PPP Chairman said the country has witnessed the worst form of media censorship and rigging in the last general elections. He said unidentified people rigged his election from the Malakand seat. He said the Form-45 of his electoral contests in Lyari and Malakand are still missing. He claimed his canvassing in the Khyber Pakthunkhwa was restricted and he was confined to Peshawar. Bilawal said despite all the rigging in the polls, a Bhutto finally reached the assembly after a gap of 20 years. The PPP chairman said the PPP would never compromise on the human and the economic rights of the people.

The followers of the Shaheed Bhutto are in the country to defend the human rights of the masses, he claimed. He said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto with his sacrifice has become an eternal figure in the Pakistani politics. Bilawal said Zulfikar Ali Bhutto laid down his life but never took a “U-turn” on his ideology. He said certain people are still afraid of the ideology and thoughts of the late Bhutto. Bilawal said the ministers of the present government started screaming and trembling the moment someone talks about the late Bhutto in the National Assembly.

The PPP has reserved a special train for its Karwan-e-Bhutto from Karachi to Larkana against a sum of over Rs one million. The special train comprises 14 wagons including one luxury saloon and an AC Sleeper compartment.