Dictator’s aides to only advise provincial interference, says Bilawal

KARACHI: The Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has warned Prime Minister Imran Khan of meeting Musharraf like fate if he continues with the anti-democratic and unconstitutional tendencies against opposition and tries to repeal the 18th Amendment.

“Go ahead with the unconstitutional and undemocratic steps to overthrow the Sindh government and persecute the opposition but it will boomerang consequences being currently faced by Pervez Musharraf for the prime minister,” said the PPP chairman while talking to newsmen on Saturday during his visit to the Centre for Autism and Training Sindh here in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. The PPP chairman was asked about the advice to the Prime Minister by his law minister to use certain constitutional provisions to overthrow the PPP government in Sindh. Continuing with the reply, the PPP Chairman said the prime minister will keep getting such advice as long he keeps Musharraf regimes aides and ministers in his cabinet. Bilawal advised prime minister not to pay heed to such advice and instead strengthen the constitution and democratic norms during his rule.

He said the 18th Constitutional Amendment, constitution, and democratic norms are the red lines whose violation would compel the PPP to topple the paper thin majority government. The PPP chairman warned that the PPP would be compelled to launch a movement to overthrow the government if it tries to usurp the resources and rights of people and provinces as enshrined in the 18th Amendment.

Bilawal also warned that the Opposition political parties including PPP, whether its leaders were imprisoned or freed, would continue to give tough time to the government and resist its fascist and undemocratic tendencies against its critics and political opponents. He said “if the Prime Minister thinks that there could be an easy and clear path for governance after stuffing the prisons with the Opposition, he should better shun such illusions. He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has not even spared the vocal civil society, and critics in media as it knew it is a ‘selected government’ in power merely on the basis of a paper thin six seats majority in the National Assembly. The party chairman said the PPP has no objection to accountability as democracy is only strengthened through checks and balances carried out under the rule of law and justice. He said unfortunately the accountability is being carried out at the behest of present rulers as a vengeance against political opponents and to carry out political engineering in the country. He said extensive reforms are required in the law governing the National Accountability Bureau so it could continue accountability in a fair, just and across-the-board manner. He strongly condemned that NAB tactics of harassing the suspects who continue to die in its custody but the handcuffs are not removed even after death. Citing the death of a well-reputed ex-army official Asad Munir, the party chairman said he is the latest victim of the highhanded tactics of the anti graft body.Earlier, Bilawal said the Sindh government would establish several more autism rehabilitation and training centres in other cities of Sindh for providing free of cost treatment to the children suffering from the disorder. He said the Sindh government following the 18th Constitutional Amendment has developed institutions in the health sectors like the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases across Sindh to provide free of cost and quality health services to the people.