SUKKUR: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday questioned Imran Khan terming the ‘war on terror’ an “imposed war” on Pakistan and said that the prime minister had disappointed the families of martyrs and soldiers fighting “our very own war”.

Addressing a rally in Sukkur on the 52nd foundation day of the party, the PPP chairman carried out a detailed examination of the 100-day performance of the PTI government, reminding it of all the promises that the ruling party had vowed to meet in its first three months in power. Point by point, he took up all those claims and then presented a snapshot of the current state of affairs.

“Currently, the country is in flames of terror and extremism, and we have to save it from this menace in line with the ideologies of Benazir Bhutto and Zulfikar Bhutto,” Mr Bhutto-Zardari said.

Says PM disappointed families of martyrs and soldiers by calling ‘war on terror’ an ‘imposed war’

“But it’s also true that this cannot be done until the prime minister of the country owns the war on terror and extremism as its own war. You can imagine what a heart-wrenching feeling it is for the families of martyrs and soldiers when the prime minister declares on Yaum-i-Shuhada that it’s not our war. Khan sahib, whether you agree or not, it’s our war, and they are our martyrs and soldiers.”

The PPP chairman said that the first 100 days of the prime minister’s rule would be remembered as “100 U-turns” as the current state of the economy, foreign affairs and domestic security are facing the toughest time in the country’s history. He then counted the U-turns one after another, made according to him by the PTI government since it came into power in August this year.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari vehemently warned the PTI government that his party would fight to stop the “selected government” from rolling back the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment was passed during the PPP government’s tenure to give due rights to the provinces, he said, but “voices are coming from government quarters that the 18th Amendment will be scrapped.”

“We will go to any extent to resist any [such] move of the government,” he said. Referring to the people of southern Punjab, he said that they were only “lied to” about the new province, as the PTI government had never had the will or capacity to execute the task.

The PPP chairman did not spare the coalition partners of the PTI government either, reminding them of the promises that were made when the PTI took them into its fold: “Mengal sahib [Akhtar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal], what happened to your six points [agreed between his party and the PTI at the time of the coalition’s formation]?” he said. “I am surprised that you are still their coalition partner. I would also like to ask my MQM brothers, what happened to the Karachi development programme? Where is water for Karachiites? Where is the Karachi package?”

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2018