LAHORE: Former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani says children of leaders were introduced at Multan rally to negate the propaganda that workers were being made political fodder.

He was speaking to the media outside the Sharifs’ residence, where he had come to condole with Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif the demise of his mother.

“The government ministers were propagating that the opposition parties are using their cadres as fodder in the anti-government campaign ignoring warnings about coronavirus. So we brought forward our sons and daughters at the public meeting in Multan (held this Monday).”

The PPP vice chairman said Aseefa Bhutto joined the Multan rally to show solidarity with the people of the town as party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto was unwell and couldn’t attend the meeting.

Says kids introduced to negate propaganda that workers were being made political fodder

He alleged that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government deliberately used force against the opposition to harass and deter the latter from holding the Multan rally. “Opposition leaders and workers were booked in false cases, picked up and detained, including my three sons, to frighten us from holding the meeting.”

He didn’t buy the government’s claim that the administration and police had acted on their own saying the federal cabinet had decided to use MPO-16 to detain the opposition activists.

Recalling that he [as then prime minister] had accepted the opposition as an inevitable part of the political system, he regretted that the incumbent government rejected all offers of cooperation by the opposition.

He took pride in being the only unanimously elected prime minister and recalled that soon after taking oath he had ordered the release of the higher courts judges put under house arrest by the Musharraf regime. He also took credit for releasing all political prisoners.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2020