SUKKUR: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has lost majority in the house and the incumbent chairman has now forfeited moral right to cling to the seat, especially after all opposition parties have jointly nominated Hasil Bizenjo as their candidate for the slot.

He said at a press conference at Sukkur Press Club late on Thursday evening that those who had once helped him become chairman had the right to remove him after he had lost their trust.

He said that when interviews of Gen Zia, Musharraf as well as those of “criminals” present in the government could be aired on TV channels, why not the interview of a former president and present member of National Assembly.

He said that demand for midterm election would be advantageous if there was agreement on improving election system before the polls. He reiterated that there was no justification for deployment of army in polling stations.

He said that at present media organisations and journalists were not working independently. They were being strangulated financially and his party would extend them all possible cooperation. He said that no opposition party had ever demanded NRO while Imran Khan himself was extending the NRO by making an offer of “pay money and go away”.

“We will not allow the prime minister to flee,” he said.

Bilawal said earlier at a community conference of women who were beneficiaries of Peoples Poverty Reduction Programme of Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) that the party would never bargain over peoples’ economic, democratic and human rights.

He said the party would bring real change by expanding the work of SRSO throughout the country for the elimination of poverty. The government tried to scrap the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and promote Ehsas Programme but the country’s women would not allow BISP to end at any cost, he said.

He said that it was BISP which had helped women from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Fata and Kashmore to Karachi to stand on their own feet while “revolutionary” programme of SRSO had been recognised by European Union which had raised its contribution to the fund.

Earlier, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the Peoples Poverty Reduction Programme of SRSO would continue despite shortage of funds and limited resources.

He said that they would spread the programme to every nook and cranny of Sindh and help women stand on their own feet.

Former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that Imran Khan was talking about new Pakistan while PPP was talking about development.

Later, PPP chairman and chief minister gave away laptops, certificates and cheques of low-income housing schemes to women who showed better performance including women office bearers.

MNAs Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah and Noman Islam Shaikh, PPP Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, MNA Dr Nafeesa Shah, provincial minister Saeed Ghani, provincial adviser Murtaza Wahab, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, provincial minister Syed Awais Qadir Shah, Waqar Mehdi, Sukkur Mayor Arsalan Islam Shaikh, Jameel Soomro and others accompanied the PPP chairman.

A large number of women from Khairpur, Sukkur, Ghotki, Naushahro Feroze, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Shikar­pur, Jacobabad, Kandhkot-Kashmore and Larkana districts attended the conference.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2019