Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday lashed out at the ‘selectors’ and the ‘selected’ government, and said that his party had decided to go to Rawalpindi once again to tell the people that the source of power lay with the masses.
Addressing a gathering of party supporters in Quetta, Bilawal said it was “evident that the power has been stolen from the people and handed over to the selected and the selectors”. “The economy is not running for the benefit of the people but for the benefit of the selected and the selectors”, he said. “We do not accept any selector or the selected,” he said. “For us, only the will of the people is acceptable. Not an umpire’s finger,” he added.
Bilawal said that it was time to end the reign of puppets and bring to power those who had the support of the masses. He said that confronting the prime minister would not be difficult, as his party had faced dictators in the past.
He also accused the government of disregarding the people of Balochistan in charting out the route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and keeping them deprived of their share of benefits from the project.
“We brought revolutionary programmes such as CPEC for you, the people of Balochistan […] the vision of former president [Asif Ali] Zardari was for the route to begin with the most backward areas of Pakistan, namely FATA and Balochistan, but I regret to say the route was changed and instead, the project began from Lahore and Sindh,” he said.
“We want the people of Balochistan to benefit from the CPEC, but this incompetent, unqualified puppet government has failed in providing you the benefits. Only the PPP is capable, and it is the only party to have ever strived to deliver the benefits of a project to the residents of the area it (the project) is launched in.”
Citing examples whereby citizens of Thar were empowered as a result of the Thar coal power project, the PPP chairman said, “The women of the Thar desert are now working [in a range of roles] from truck drivers to civil engineers.”
“The coal of Sindh is used to power Faisalabad’s power plants,” he added, as he continued to speak of the “feats” made possible in Sindh by the PPP.
He said that Balochistan was the province blessed with the most number of resources in the country, and claimed that it was only the PPP that could ensure that the benefits of the resources were delivered “to the owners of the resources, the people of Balochistan”.
He also questioned the restrictions on media, which allowed the interviews of “members of banned organisations”, RAW agent Kulbhushan Jadhav, and Indian air force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman to be aired, but not of former president Asif Ali Zardari. “Pakistan is the only country where numerous people go missing and the fault is always theirs and never the state’s,” said Bilawal, in further criticism of the government.
Bilawal said that the “selected prime minister” was not only “stealing” the share of resources that should go to the provinces, but was also “placing the burden of his incompetency” onto the people.
“He who promised 10 million jobs and 5 million homes is not only stealing existing jobs but the roof over people’s heads in the name of encroachment,” said the PPP chairman. Bilawal alleged that the government was wilfully causing the “economic suicide” of farmers by taking away subsidies and of the elderly by not increasing their pensions. He said all Pakistanis, from the white-collared workers to labourers, were being “swept away by the tsunami of inflation”.
He also accused the government of making economic decisions according to “PTIMF”, a reference to the PTI allegedly working on the directives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Bilawal alleged that the prime minister had spent 20 years campaigning against robbers and looters of the state, but had now introduced a tax amnesty scheme for them. “But there is no tax amnesty, no bailout for traders and farmers,” he said.
He said that PPP, during its tenure, had also battled price hikes, combatted the global recession and entered into programmes with the IMF, but “safeguarded the people’s interests while doing so”.
He said former president Zardari had brought a 100 percent increase in pensions, 150 percent increase in salaries and the democratic government had also brought about a 175 percent increase in the salaries of soldiers. “This is the difference between a people’s government and a selected government.”
