Political orphans are being pitched against us: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Friday said the government did not get a clear majority in the AJK elections and now it will use money to install its prime minister, speaker and ministers.

Addressing a press conference at the Zardari House here after meeting the elected representatives, he said by removing the Kashmir seats in Pakistan, the PTI government had not got a clear majority.

The PPP chairman said political orphans were being pitched against them. “The PPP is the largest opposition party in the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly (AJKLA) and will give a tough time to the puppet government alone and together with other parties in the elections of prime minister, speaker and reserved seats and expose rigging,” he said.

The “puppet” government has rigged elections in Azad Kashmir and the government formed there will be unstable, he added. The meeting was attended by the elected representatives of AJKLA Chaudhry Latif Akbar, Faisal Rathore, Amir Ghaffar Lone, Sardar Javed Ayub, Sardar Yaqub Khan, Mian Waheed, Bazal Naqvi, Chaudhry Yasin, Javed Bhadwani and Qasim Majeed.

Bilawal said the PPP position was very clear and all the opposition had to come on the same page against the “selected” government. He said if the other opposition parties also took a clear stand, then they could fight the “puppets” together.

The PPP chairman said the PPP had the right to form government in Azad Kashmir but it was deprived of this right. Replying to a question, he said there had never been such rigging in the history of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

“The minister for Kashmir affairs was caught distributing money,” he said, adding the Election Commission had barred him from entering Kashmir but its orders were violated. Bilawal said the PPP will work with the opposition to formulate a strategy in Kashmir against this puppet government.

Replying to a question about the electronic voting machines, he said the PPP had been leading the struggle for free and fair elections. He said rigging was always against the PPP as even before this, rigging was done to stop Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. “Whenever the PPP has made electoral reforms, they reached a consensus,” he said.

He said electronic voting machines had been proposed maliciously and the Election Commission of Pakistan was also not supporting that proposal. “This government has always humiliated the ECP,” he said.

The PPP chairman said the action being taken against the PPP was nothing new as they had fought against dictators Zia and Musharraf and now they will also fight against this “puppet government”.

He said the government used the MQM method of rigging. He said Chaudhry Yaseen was attacked on the election day and everyone witnessed it on the TV. Despite rigging, he said Chaudhry Yasin won by two seats and it was a great achievement that the PPP had now won the seat of Kotli city after Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Replying to another question about the remarks of PPP leader Nabeel Gabol on Kashmir elections, he said Farhatullah Babar would issue a show cause notice to Nabil Gabol. On this occasion, Farhatullah Babar said he had issued the notice and received the reply.

“We have a clear position that the PPP will fight this puppet from Karachi to Kashmir and will chase away the selected. We have moved the selected to the sixth position from Malir and Baldia in Karachi,” he said. Replying to yet another question with regard to the visit of Premier Imran Khan to Sindh, Bilawal said the people of Pakistan had recognized the real face of Imran Khan's transformation.

“The real face of this change is historical poverty, unemployment and inflation,” he said. “This puppet prime minister has constantly robbed Sindh of its rights and has done nothing for Sindh. The person he has just appointed for the affairs of Sindh has suffered a historic defeat by a young jiyala of the PPP,” he said.

APP adds: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib Friday said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) both would now vie for the opposition leader’s slot in future.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had no competition with both the parties in the Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) elections, as the two were rather fighting for the opposition leader’s seat, he said while reacting to the statement of Bilawal Bhutto.

“Despite knowing that his speeches in shrieking tone did not help the PPP win elections in Gilglit Baltistan, Bilawal continued the same style in AJK, but his party faced another humiliating defeat,” he said.

He said the PPP leaders spent huge money on the AJK elections with the illusion that they would retrieve the same after victory. The party was already a failure in national politics and now it has failed in the AJK and is not in a position to harm the PTI, he added.

The minister lashed out at both the PPP and the PML-N for crying foul in the AJK polls, asking them whether there were no irregularities committed on the seats where their candidates won. “Bilawal should tell how much he is charging for the seats of speaker, deputy speaker and minister [in Sindh],” Farrukh remarked. He dispelled the impression of any joint opposition in the country and asked Bilawal how he would reapproach the PMLN with whom the PPP had parted ways.