KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday lashed out at Prime Minister Imran Khan for describing the powers of elected chief ministers as dictatorial.

A statement issued by the party said the PPP chairman shared his thoughts while speaking during a consultative meeting via a telephone conference with the party’s senior leadership.

It quoted the PPP chairman as describing the prime minister as callous and disconnected.

“He [the prime minister] obviously has no idea of how a federation works let alone the significance of distribution of resources among the federating units,” he added.

Those who joined the conference call and shared their views included Raja Pervez Ashraf, Senator Sherry Rehman, Syed Naveed Qamar, Maula Bux Chandio, Farhatullah Babur and Dr Nafisa Shah.

PPP leader questions PM’s knowledge of federation’s working

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that the disastrous policies and confused messaging of the PTI government had allowed the pandemic to spin out of control and that everyone was surprised that the prime minister appeared adamant against a lockdown despite a huge surge in deaths due to the virus. “The prime minister has openly ignored the warnings from WHO, health professionals and the opposition,” the PPP chairman remarked.

He said that the PTI government had pushed the country into a very dangerous situation by neglecting health and agriculture in the budget and warned that the prime minister would be held responsible if locust attacks dragged Pakistan into a famine.

The PPP chairman said that certain statements of Prime Minister Imran Khan showed that he was not aware about the importance of the NFC Award, questioning as to how a country would be run when its chief executive was unaware of the importance of distribution of resources among the federating units. Mr Bhutto-Zardari expressed concern about the prime minister’s statements against the 18th Amendment and termed them an attack on the 1973 constitution.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2020