TIMERGARA: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that despite ‘pre-poll rigging’ in the election for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assem­bly seats in the tribal districts his party would defeat the ‘selected candidates’.

Addressing a public meeting organised by his party at Munda ground here on Monday, the PPP chairman blasted the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leadership and Prime Minister Imran Khan for taking frequent U-turns after coming into power.

The PPP chairman is campaigning for his party’s candidates in the election to be held on July 20 in the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He criticised the government for not allowing him to visit Bajaur district and said that the opposition parties were treated badly.

He said that participation of a large number of people in his rallies after the passage of the federal budget had proved that the nation was fed up with the rulers.

He said that it was his fifth rally after the budget and people from all walks of life attended them in a large number.

“It is a dictatorship in the garb of democracy as there is no freedom of movement and speech for the opposition parties,” Mr Bhutto-Zardari said, adding that the basic rights of the citizens had been seized in the country.

“The opposition is being victimised. Media and judiciary are under attack,” he said, adding that the country had been thrown in the lap of the International Monetary Fund and other global lenders.

Our correspondent from Bajaur adds: A large number of PPP activists, led by party’s provincial vice president Akhunzada Chattan, from Bajaur tribal district participated in Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s public meeting in the neighbouring Munda area of Lower Dir district.

Besides party activists and senior leaders, PPP nominees of all the three provincial assembly constituencies of Bajaur, including Hifzoor Khan of PK-100, Mohammad Anees Khan of PK-101 and Saidur Rahman of PK-102 also attended the public meeting.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2019