Govt will go in six months, says Bilawal

LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said his party will never come to power through any power-sharing formula, and it would never make any deal with the establishment for the purpose.

“If we came to power, we will review and amend any power-sharing formula with the establishment,” he said while talking to the media at Bilawal House on Saturday.

The PPP leader noted that his party had ensured civilian and parliamentary supremacy through the 18th Constitutional Amendment. He claimed that the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would be sent packing in six months, as its contract had reached expiry. He said the powerlessness of the incumbent government was visible from the fact that it was a selected government. He said those working on contract had to do precisely what they were told under the contract. He said the foreign powers also use the selected governments for their vested interests, adding that after campaigning for Narendra Modi elections, now a campaign was being run for re-election of US President Donald Trump.

He said it was height of hypocrisy that those who had been demanding Pakistan ‘Do more’ were now publishing interviews of Taliban commander Sirajul Haq Haqqani. He said the state institutions never considered masses as important and never acknowledged the power and sovereignty of people.

To a question, Bilawal said before Imran Khan, Mian Nawaz Sharif was also a selected prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) had never given due importance to the parliament like Imran Khan.

He said the role of opposition leader was vitally important for functioning of democracy, and expressed his hope that Shahbaz Sharif would return to the country soon. He said it never mattered that his party members were in minority in the parliament, adding that they were determined to fight like the 300 of the Sparta. He recalled that Benazir Bhutto with only 17 members’ minority had resisted and frustrated Nawaz Sharif’s bid to become Amirul Momineen despite having heavy mandate.

Bilawal Bhutto said leaders of Punjab had fled the country at a time when their people badly needed them. He noted that dog-bite in Sindh makes headlines in the media and discussed in prime time, but such incidents in Punjab’s Lahore and Faisalabad district are not given any importance. He said the HIV spread in Sindh was dangerous but that of Punjab was not.

He said Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was better than Shahbaz Sharif and the incumbent Punjab chief minister. He challenged that Murad Ali Shah should be compared with the chief ministers of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. He said price-hike and inflation had not registered any decrease. He said that let the summer come, and there would be no electricity but people would receive heavy bills.

He told a questioner that all crises of Musharraf era including the shortage of wheat, sugar and Lal Masjid had returned to the country under the PTI regime.