Bilawal gives govt, allies, ‘selectors’ year-end deadline

SUKKUR: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday, addressing a workers convention at Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto in Larkana, declared the government could not pressurise his father, arrested on corruption charges, in jail and there would be no compromise on the 18th Amendment.

He said the incompetent government should be sent home and they would not allow a puppet government in the province. He asked why people from one specific institution being included in commissions.

He said that from 2008 to 2019, the PPP had refused to join Islamabad sit-ins and if allies and backers of Imran Khan did not send him home, then they will move to Islamabad for a sit in. On the occasion, he announced rallies against the "puppet government" and in this regard he directed workers to be ready, specially workers of the Punjab. He said why the judge involved in video scandal given their cases and asked if anything was wrong, then why they conducted trial in Rawalpindi. He told the government it was better to leave themselves or they will come to Islamabad to get rid of them.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto warned that the Federation could be harmed with non-democratic attitudes and claimed even today the Federation was in danger. "We will have to defend the Federation by confronting non-democratic forces, PTI and MQM." He claimed that the puppet government was continuously attacking democracy and economic rights. He said the puppet government had usurped Rs100 billion of Sindh, Rs 200 bn of Punjab and Rs 30 billion of Balochistan.

He nominated Jameel Ahmed Soomro as the party candidate for PS-11 by-election, Larkana. He said the PPP had 99 seats in the Sindh Assembly and it would raise its number to century by winning the by-election. He reiterated upon those backing the PTI government to send Imran Khan home or he will move to Islamabad.

He claimed the "thin coalition" wants to capture Karachi under the guise of garbage issue. He said the coalition of JDA, MQM and PTI was formed to ensure the rights of people but they wanted to separate the capital of Sindh from the province. "We are ready to tolerate the oppression of the government but will not bargain on our principles," he said.

Bilawal said that the PTI government has been trying unsuccessfully to overthrow the Sindh government for over a year.

He said that it was no more possible for the Centre to impose its will on Karachi as people had reacted angrily to the move.

He said that no party could snatch the mandate and constitutional and democratic rights from the PPP, which was the largest democratic party of the country.

The PPP chairman said that the PTI and MQM were attempting to divide Sindh on the plea of Article 149. He said that economic murder of youth was being carried out in the country. He denied reports of existence of a forward bloc in the party and said that such rumors were being spread by anti-PPP forces which wanted to gain sympathies of general public through fabricated news. He said the PPP had rendered supreme sacrifices to restore democracy in the country and people of Sindh had reposed their confidence and trust in PPP in the general election 2018. He said that the PPP got votes from all over Sindh and it had polled greater ratio of votes than it had obtained even during the time of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan "who has vowed to protect human rights in occupied Kashmir, has ripped apart democratic rights of the people of Pakistan."