NAB reaction over ‘certified traitor’ Musharraf pain was expected: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

PESHAWAR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Saturday the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was established by “certified traitor” General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, and it was bound to show reaction over his pain in the form of his conviction by the special court.

Addressing a gathering of PPP workers and office-bearers from all over Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at the residence of former provincial assembly speaker Kiramatullah Khan Chagharmati, he said NAB had issued him fresh notice after conviction of Pervez Musharraf. He said NAB was being used to pressure Pakistan People’s Party. “We will not bow to the pressure and will face the so-called references,” he added. Reiterating his commitment to launch a new crusade from Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi from Dec 27, Bilawal urged his party workers to be prepared for another revolution against the “inefficient, corrupt and selected rulers.”

He recalled the sacrifices of PPP workers and leaders rendered for the rights of the people and said they defeated military dictators in the past and, therefore, facing the selected rulers was not difficult for them. PPP Senior Vice-Chairman Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, General Secretary Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, former National Assembly Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, and former lawmakers Malik Azmat Khan, Malik Tehmas Khan, Syed Ayub Shah, Liaquat Shabab and Sher Azam Wazir were also present on the occasion.

The venue for the meeting was decorated with banners and portraits of party leaders and rose- petals were showered on participants to accord a rousing welcome to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The former party candidates and dissidents interrupted speeches of almost every speaker by raising slogans against the provincial president Mohammad Humayun Khan.

The organisers did not invite the provincial president to deliver speech. The central and provincial PPP leaders assured the protesting activists that their demands had been presented to the party chairman, who would reorganise the party on the basis of performance of office-bearers.

Amidst thunderous applause, Bilawal Bhutto recalled that PPP had always strived to achieve the rights of the poor people and bring about economic development.

He said the PPP accepted the results of the rigged 2018 general election for the cause of democracy, but unfortunately the selected rulers could neither run affairs of the government nor improve the economy.

He said the party had decided to observe the death anniversary of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi, the place of her martyrdom. He announced that the third generation of the Bhutto family was going to the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

He said that in the last 30 years, the country did not witness free and fair polls. He pointed out that after 1988 and 2008 polls, the PPP formed governments despite its reservations about rigging. “The same irregularities were committed in other elections and in 2002 the election was snatched from our party,” he said.

The PPP chairman said the general election of 2013 was manipulated by the returning officers while in 2018 despite legislation for ensuring transparency in the polling process the election was rigged.

He said that today neither media nor politics was free as the interviews of the terrorists could be carried, but not of the democratically elected former President of Pakistan.

He said they had decided to organize the main function of the death anniversary of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi and prove to the world that the power belonged to the masses and only they would reign supreme in the country.

Bilawal Bhutto said that PPP during its stints in power had served the poor segments of society and had run people-friendly government.

He added that PPP had always remained the champion of the economic rights of the poor. “The launching of the revolutionary poor-friendly Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is ample proof of the fact,” he said.