PESHAWAR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari declared that the incumbent government will “have to go home by January” and it was their “last month in power”.
Addressing a rally organised by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Bilawal called upon the masses to hold the rulers as well as their “selectors” accountable. He said the people will decide how Pakistan will be governed and what kind of leadership will rule it.
He claimed protests are taking place in Gilgit-Baltistan against election rigging there and also accused the government of abandoning the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Bilawal lamented that the erstwhile FATA was still deprived of its rights as the government was not releasing adequate funds for development, and people displaced by terrorism and military operations had still not been rehabilitated of given compensation.
The PPP chairman said his party had struggled for FATA’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but today but its people are not being given their rights but still remain off-limits to local residents.
Regarding criticism over PDM’s decision to hold the rally despite increasing COVID-19 cases, Bilawal said that the government “only remembers COVID when they want to stop our rallies and your protests”
He criticised the accountability process and said National Accountability Bureau went after opposition members for “political revenge” but do not pursue corruption cases against government officers. Declaring the PTI government as the “most corrupt government in Pakistan’s history”, Bilawal said “the entire Pakhtunkhwa is demanding ‘Go Imran Go!'”
Bilawal said and added that the country cannot have a strong accountability system until “there is one law for all citizens.” said that the “burden of the selected government” is being borne by the common man.
He vowed to give KP its due share and lamented that Rs160bn were not given to the province due to the negligence of FBR. He asked why the benefits of the China-Pak Economic Corridor are not being shared with the people of the province.
Peshawar was on high alert as the PDM prepared to hold a rally at Ring Road amid security threats and the risk of the spread of coronavirus. Earlier PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz briefly appeared on stage and addressed rally participants, asking for prayers for her grandmother who passed away this morning in London.
