Terror incidents may increase if Afghan policy not corrected: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while condemning the terror incident in Lahore said that there will be an increase in such incidents if the Pakistan policy in Afghan peace process is not corrected.

“I had demanded on the floor of the Parliament that whatever this government is doing covertly and through the backdoor on Afghanistan should be brought before the representatives of the people,” he said while talking to media persons at the Parliament House on Wednesday.

Bilawal said the government should tell what its policy is. “The Speaker has also accepted our demand and after the budget session the opinion of other parties will also be made known,” he said.

The PPP chairman said the factor of terrorism should be tackled carefully as it always remained a weak spot for the government and Imran Khan. In a reply to a question regarding FATF, he said the government has done injustice to the people of Pakistan and the business community by legislating beyond the demands of FATF. “This government has made the situation difficult for the business community and common man by such legislations,” he said. Bilawal said this legislation was forcibly passed and also could not take Pakistan out of the grey list. “It was a failure of the government which should first look into the interests of the people of Pakistan and the business community. We live in a global community and want to continue the rules of the global community but not at the expense of the business community which was already suffering due to COVID-19 and continues to do so now because of this legislation,” he said. Regarding the meeting of former president Asif Ali Zardari with Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Bilawal said, “We had achieved many successes in government with Pervaiz Elahi's party.” The PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the blast in Johar Town Lahore.

In a statement, Shehbaz said the loss of precious lives in the blast is extremely sad and unfortunate. “This incident in the capital of the most populous province of Punjab should be an eye-opener,” he said.

He reminded that he had been warning about the deteriorating law and order situation seeking serious attention.

Shehbaz stressed that putting aside important national issues will not work because the people of Pakistan were paying the price of the government’s apathy and procrastination.