No difference between Imran, Musharraf: Bilawal

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said the nation has to decide whether it wants a democratic Pakistan or the rule of a ‘selected’ prime minister.

The country’s economy would run as per the people’s choice, not on the instructions of the umpire in the “people’s government”, said the PPP chairman while addressing a workers convention organized by party leader Rana Jameel Manj in Raiwind.

Former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani, President PPP Central Punjab Qamar Zaman Kaira and President Lahore Chapter Haji Azizur Rehman Chan also addressed the gathering.

Bilawal said the PPP welcomes the historic rulings by the court and stated that decisions based on democracy should continue in the future as well. He hoped that justice would be done in cases related to Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, May 12 killings as well as Asghar Khan and Akber Bugti cases. Criticizing the prime minister, he said neither media and politics were free these days nor the people of Pakistan, adding that the interviews of terrorists could be aired on TV channels but former president Asif Ali Zardari’s interview was not shown. He said that on one telephone call, the course of Pakistan’s foreign policy was decided by the PTI government. Former president Pervez Musharraf also made a decision regarding the foreign policy on a single call. “What difference remains between Imran and Musharraf,” he said.

Bilawal urged the nation to decide whether the 2018 polls were the last “selected polls” or not and stated that if the public mandate is hijacked again, the situation would lead to a revolution. He said the PPP would raise the slogan “Fair Election or Revolution” in case fair polls are not held. He said when poor farmers and students came out on roads to register their protest against the injustice done to them by this government, they were persecuted and are facing cases against them.

The PPP chairman said it is against the democratic norms to suppress the voice of opponents and stated that the PPP since the day one has been lodging protest against rigging in the polls. Citing the reference of 1988 elections, he said the PPP got two-thirds majority but its mandate was hijacked and it wasn’t allowed to form government in Punjab whereas its government in the centre could only survive for a period of around one year. Later, in the 90s as well, he said plots were hatched against the PPP whereas before 2013, it declared the elections as the “elections of ROs”.

He said the PPP is able to send the “selected” home and urged his party workers to get ready for the decisive battle. He said it was the PPP government which started the CPEC project and is capable of defending it. Benazir Bhutto sacrificed her life for the sake of democracy and Pakistan and stated that “puppet rulers” never came through public power but only through conspiracies. Voicing concern over the economic challenges faced by the people of Pakistan, Bilawal said the level of inflation has increased manifold. The PPP is committed to form a “government of people” whose economy would be run as per the aspirations of people, not on umpire’s will. Gillani and Kaira highlighted PPP’s achievements during its rule between 2008-2013. Kaira said it was the PPP which took over the country while facing the most critical circumstances and it was the PPP which established the writ of state, took back areas like Swat and Waziristan from the clutches of militants.