Bilawal threatens protest if Sindh hospitals not returned

By our correspondent

KARACHI/LARKANA/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Sunday that he would protest on his province’s right by going to Islamabad if hospitals of Sindh were not returned.

He said that the 18th Amendment states that the provinces were to make decisions about their future sovereignly but the "puppet in Islamabad was making decisions in our place — which we will not tolerate. Should our rightful share not be given to us, we, alongside our people, will go to Islamabad to protest," Bilawal warned. "If attempts are made to implement the One Unit policy, the Pakistan People’s Party will stand against it like a wall," he added. Talking to media personnel here in Larkana, the PPP chairman said services of international standard were being provided for the medical treatment of children in various major hospitals in Karachi but that his party wished to provide similar and better treatment Sindh-wide as well.

There is a huge difference between HIV and AIDS Bilawal said. There is a lack of awareness about HIV in Pakistan. Everyone needs to be aware of HIV so that they can protect themselves, he added.

The PPP chairman further said that people need to understand that they cannot contract the illness by merely touching a person with HIV. HIV is not a death punishment it can be treated he said.

A federal minister called Sindh 'AIDistan', he underscored, saying this was an abuse for the country's southern province. "No one condemned that," he lamented.

The statistics pertaining to HIV and AIDS were concerning but the two were different conditions, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Sunday and lamented how Sindh was being ignored and cornered.

Bilawal said attempts were being made to economically crush Sindh. Earlier, the same people used to make jibes about administrative issues and make comments about us not running the hospitals, he said, adding that Sindh's public-private ownership was spoken about positively in the whole world.

The PPP chairperson said the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had announced to make Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital a model but failed to do so, which is why "these people were trying to steal our hospitals.” "We are not being given what we deserve, Sindh is not even being given its rightful share of water," and that "attempts are being made to crush Sindh economically", he said.

He further added that he demanded the federal government rescind the notification pertaining to the hospitals. "Prime Minister Imran Khan destroyed Peshawar's only cardio hospital by handing it over to his relative," he added.

"We, on the other hand, brought the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) up to international standards," the PPP chief stressed. "They now want to forcefully take the Jinnah Postgraduate Hospital (JPMC) from the Sindh government."

Bilawal further commented on how his party-led government built up the province's institutions with the public money. He asked: "How is it that the gas supply of Sindh, including that for Karachi, be halted?"

The statistics pertaining to HIV and AIDS are concerning, Bilawal admitted, but highlighted that the two were different conditions. "Sindh is the only province that took steps for the diagnosis of HIV."

Following a visit to the HIV screening camps in Larkana’s Ratodero division Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asserted on Sunday that the disease was not a death sentence.

HIV is not a death sentence, said Bilawal in a tweet, adding that the conflation of HIV & AIDS is fueling stigmatisation of the most vulnerable people in Pakistan. “This cannot and should not be tolerated I stand by my fellow Pakistanis who have contracted HIV be they in Ratodero, Swabi, Sargodha or Turbat,” he said.

The PPP chairman added that the Sindh government was carrying out aggressive screenings. He said that 22, 900 people had been tested and stressed on the importance to destigmatise HIV by creating awareness about the disease.

Meanwhile, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, the spokesman to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that PPP chairman has represented the federation of Pakistan and the news channels that have reservations on his statements should give up journalism and enter politics.

“The PPP is a federal political party and does not need certificate of patriotism from so-called defence analysts and retired generals. PPP represents federation and is very well aware that how the country's stability and security could be safeguarded,” he said in a statement on Sunday

He said that declaring any political party a traitor puts the very existence of country on stake. “This practice has dismembered the country in the past and still similar decrees are being issued. PPP has always defended federation from anti-federation forces,” he said.

Senator Mustafa Khokhar said anti-federation forces declare traitor anyone who ask for constitutional rights but only real peoples' representatives know that how the country could be kept united.