Will never budge on presidential system, military courts: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday said the PPP will not change its stance on the presidential system, 18th Amendment, democracy, media censorship and on military courts, come what may.

“We will not change our stances on the presidential system, 18th Amendment, military courts, democracy or media censorship and will not be afraid of going to jails. We will not be pressurised to change our stance. You can put all the PPP in jail but we will not change our stance,” he said while addressing a press conference here on Monday at the Bilawal House. 

PPP Parliamentarians Secretary General Farhatullah Babar, PPP Secretary General Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Dr Nafisa Shah and Nazir Dhoki accompanied Bilawal on the occasion.

Asked about the reported comments of DG ISPR that a political party is supportive of the PTM, Bilawal said that he was the PPP chairman and supports only PPP but if another political party raises issue of democracy, human rights, then he will also support those points. “But the PPP is the only party which I support,” he said.

Bilawal said that the country’s narrative on foreign policy should come from the foreign minister and internal security policy from interior minister. He said if the prime minister gets the policies announced by the ISPR, then institutions will be made controversial and the PPP does not want it.

He said despite the recession, the PPP government ‘fought with international institutions’ for the sake of people. He said he was ready to talk with the youth of Wazirstan. “The youth of Waziristan were not supporting terrorism as they want democracy and if they were not taken on board, then they will go towards chaos,” he said.

He said the PPP wanted that the assemblies complete their tenure but will also give moral support to anti-government move of Maulana Fazalur Rehman. Reiterating his stance against the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)’s functioning under “black law”, Bilawal said that there are separate laws for the poor and the rich. “The law of the dictator and democracy cannot co-exist,” he said.

Bilawal said that honourable men like Dr Dinshaw were accused wrongly, arrested and tortured. “The law should be the same and accountable for everyone. They (NAB) will be mocked if they frame fake cases against their political rivals,” he added.

He also said how Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, Sharjeel Memon and other PPP leaders were arrested before trial. “The arrests of the PPP were made before trial while others were arrested after the trial,” he said adding that those who were involved in billion tree project were not even touched.

He said that in the matter of fake accounts, the probe authority cannot follow double standards. He said the case which was made against him goes back to when he was one-year-old.

Bilawal demanded of the government to bring the agreement with the IMF into Parliament without which the PPP will not accept it. He also criticised PM's Adviser on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh for not addressing the parliament.

He asked for Ramazan package for poor people adding that Amnesty Scheme is being launched to whiten black money of elites. There have been separate laws for poor and rich people. If the government wanted to raise inflation, why they got loans and if they did not give relief to the people then the reaction will come, he said.