QUETTA: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday his party would launch a campaign for early elections in the country if the Nawaz Sharif government did not accept and implement the PPP’s four-point charter before Dec 27.

“Our four demands are – passage of the draft Panama bill, immediate appointment of a permanent foreign minister, reconstitution of the parliamentary committee on national security and implementation of the resolution on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passed by a multiparty conference,” he said.

Talking to reporters after visiting the cadets injured in last week’s gun-and-suicide attack on Police Training College, the PPP chairman said that at present his party was pressuring the government in a soft and democratic way to accept its demands. But, he warned, the PPP would take to the streets and launch a campaign for early elections if the demands were not met before Dec 27 – the death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in 2007.

“We have already requisitioned a session of the Senate on Nov 4 and will announce our strategy if the government does not accept our four demands. “The PPP delegation will present its case and stance on the Panama Papers leaks before the Election Commission on Nov 2,” he announced.

The PPP chairman sought resignation of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for what he called the latter’s failure to fight terrorism and implement the National Action Plan (NAP). He wondered what was the role of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, PTI chief Imran Khan and Chaudhry Nisar in the fight against terrorism when personnel of the armed forces, police and other law enforcement agencies were sacrificing their lives for defending the motherland.

During his brief visit to Quetta amid tight security, the PPP chairman was accompanied by Qamar Zaman Kaira, former federal ministers Baz Mohammad Khetiran, Changez Khan Jamali, Mir Sadiq Umrani, Ali Madad Jattak and other senior leaders of the party.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari went to the Civil Hospital and met the injured police cadets and inquired about their health. He expressed sorrow over the killing of more than 60 cadets and said that PPP stood with the victims’ families in this hard time.

Talking to journalists and addressing party workers, he said the killing of Hazara people was unprecedented in terms of brutality. “My entire family can feel and understand the grief of the masses of Balochistan.”

The young leader became emotional and burst into tears while remembering his mother Benazir Bhutto. He said she was murdered by a specific ideology and added that the same ideology was behind the killing of lawyers and people in Balochistan.

He criticised Chaudhry Nisar and said the latter’s failure to implement NAP had paved the way for terrorist attacks in Quetta and other parts of the country. “Our interior minister was having photo session with ‘good Taliban’. We don’t need interior ministry and ‘Sharifistan’,” he said, adding that the interior minister and his policies had failed to save Pakistan from terrorism.

“Chaudhry Nisar is always found hiding whenever there is an act of terrorism in which scores of people are killed. However, he is always available to settle his personal score by holding news conferences against Aitzaz Ahsan and other individuals,” Mr Bhutto-Zardari said.

He said he felt pains when innocent people were killed in terrorist attacks because his family too had suffered at the hands of terrorists. He said the PPP was with the people of Balochistan, particularly with those families who had lost their loved ones in terror attacks. He said his party had always raised its voice over the issue of missing persons and demanded their early recovery and provision of relief to the affected families.

He recalled that when terrorists had attacked on the Karachi Airport and the Hazara community or people were killed in cold blood, some elements demanded resignation from the PPP government. “Now no one is demanding resignation from the PML-N government when there are more deadly terrorist attacks and killings. On the contrary, the interior minister is caught in photo sessions with the ‘notified terrorists and heads of banned outfits’,” he said.

The PPP chairman said that almost all political parties were on one page on the NAP implementation, but the government had backtracked on its commitment to taking action against banned outfits and terrorists. Nawaz Sharif was gaining ground only because of wrong and immature policies of Imran Khan, he added.

He demanded a multi-party conference on the issue of CPEC so that all provinces could share the fruits of future development.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari praised the army and law enforcement agencies for their role in the war against terrorism and said: “We are proud of our security forces which have rendered sacrifices to rid the country of terrorism and restore peace.”

He regretted that the killing of lawyers in the suicide attack on Quetta’s Civil Hospital had deprived the people of Balochistan of justice. “Lawyers play a very important role in providing justice to the masses, but terrorists tried to damage the justice system by targeting lawyers,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2016