SUKKUR: Accusing Prime Minister Imran Khan of trying to facilitate Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday claimed that the government was secretly planning to introduce an ordinance to give some relief to the Indian spy.

He was talking to media personnel at the residence of senior PPP leader Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah here.

He claimed that instead of tabling a bill in the parliament, the government was trying to introduce an ordinance.

Such an ordinance, he said, would be illegal and unconstitutional and it would not be acceptable to the people of the country.

Says government is secretly planning to introduce an ordinance for giving relief to Indian spy

The PPP chairman said that the government had kept the opposition in dark about this ordinance, adding that it was responsibility of the government take the opposition into confidence on the matter. He asked the government why such an ordinance was being prepared. If an ordinance was approved by the government for providing any kind of relief to spy Jadhav, it would be a failure of the foreign policy of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Inasf government, he said.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari severely criticised the performance of the PTI government, saying that it had failed in providing any relief to the people. Poverty and unemployment were increasing in the country and the government had no plan to improve the country’s economy, he said.

He lambasted PM Khan, saying that he was not prepared to become the prime minister of the country. Mr Khan was an active prime minister only on Twitter and Facebook, he said, adding that in the critical situation the country was facing he should become the chief executive of the whole country and not only the leader of his party.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari urged the judiciary to work for providing cheap and quick justice to the people. The PPP, he added, had always struggled for independence of the judiciary.

Lamenting over injustices with Khursheed Shah, the PPP chairman said he was an MNA and senior politician of the country, but neither he was being granted a bail, nor the cases against him were heard.

He accused the government of blackmailing the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau and using him for victimising leaders of the opposition parties.

He said leaders of the opposition parties received threats from some quarters whenever they raised questions over the performance of the government or criticised PM Khan.

The PPP chairman urged the government to stop playing the game of JIT (joint investigation team) reports with the people of Karachi. Those who were currently criticising the PPP over the situation in Lyari had now got shelter in that area, he added.

Answering questions of media personnel, Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that his party wanted the parliament to complete its tenure.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2020