Fake news created to divert attention: Bilawal

By News desk

LARKANA: The Chairman Pakistan People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, on Tuesday claimed that after the 18th Amendment, the Sindh government had performed better than other provincial governments against hopes of those who wanted the one-unit and claimed that the provinces could not perform. “On the other hand, the prime minister is lying that the country has become bankrupt due to the 18th Amendment." In fact, the country has become bankrupt due to the government's failure to achieve its revenue collection target. He said Sindh’s sales tax collection was 9 percent higher than the target and was better than others.

On changing the name of the Benazir Income Support Programme, he asked the PTI has not passed a single legislation, so how could they change the name of the BISP. He said the GDA had demanded change in name and now it will face the people.

Talking to newsmen after inaugurating the new NICVD complex in Larkana, Bilawal termed the news of the arrest of Owais Muzaffar Tappi from Dubai as fake news. He said it was being spread to divert the attention of people from the petrol bomb dropped by the government.

Denying any imminent joint movement with the PML-N, he said former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif would be focusing on his treatment, but added he believes the opposition political parties should sit together in the larger interest of people. Commenting on the economic situation, he said since Imran Khan has assumed power, the people are “drowning in tsunami of price hike." He asked the prime minister to apologise for insulting people and the Constitution. He demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan to tender an apology for his statement against 18th Amendment and the Constitution of Pakistan. "Peoples Party is not going to be scared of the puppet government," he said.

Responding to the queries of newsmen, he said (Rawal) Pindi was like ‘Karbala for the Bhuttos’, saying under the law an accused is tried only in the jurisdiction where the alleged crime is committed. “It is political victimisation and political engineering in the name of accountability and we demand that arrest should only be made if an accused is convicted like former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was arrested after due legal process,” he maintained.

On forced conversions, the PPP chairperson said they are against Islam and the Constitution and the PPP would resist them.

He offered services of the Sindh government to the federal and provincial governments in establishing cardiac-care facilities like the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), saying they should learn from Sindh in providing free and quality cardiac care facilities to the people of Pakistan. “I would request the Sindh chief minister to send letters to the health ministers of the federal and provincial governments offering them help in establishing such institutions from Cholistan to Gujjar Khan, from Fata to Peshawar and the rest of the country.”

Accompanied by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Executive Director NICVD Dr Nadeem Qamar, PPP Sindh President Nisar Khuhro, Adviser Information Barrister Murtaza Wahab and other PPP leaders, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari inaugurated the 60-bed NICVD Larkana Complex. It is a full-fledged cardiac hospital with facilities for all types of cardiac surgeries and procedures, diagnostics and treatment. The complex was earlier serving as a satellite center for the NICVD Karachi.

Terming the NICVD as an example of good governance by the PPP-led Sindh government, Bilawal said the PPP is serving the people through state-of-the-art health facilities instead of giving them ‘showcase buses’ and ‘tree projects’. Flinging a jibe at Prime Minister Imran for establishing a cardiac facility in Gwadar with the UAE funding, he said “countries can’t be run on charities.”

Felicitating the Executive Director NICVD, Prof. Nadeem Qamar and his entire team, he maintained that the PPP-led provincial government had established world class health facilities in the entire province where people from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and even from Afghanistan are availing free of charge quality treatment.