SUKKUR: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that time is ripe for sending “puppet” governments in Islamabad and Lahore packing through no-confidence motions as victory of Yousuf Raza Gilani has shaken up Imran Khan and countdown to his ouster has begun.

Bilawal said at a press conference at Jilani House, residence of former Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah in Khairpur on Saturday, that Imran Khan’s party had lost majority in the National Assembly but it was unfortunate that “only PPP is opposing the puppet government while other friends in the opposition are spending their energies only on criticising the opposition thus benefiting Imran Khan.”

He said that politics of extremes was not useful and advised PML-N leaders to adopt politics of patience. Maulana Fazlur Rehman was entrusted with a huge burden to keep all allies in Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) together and not to allow minor differences to dent the unity, he said.

He said that some people in his party were of the opinion that some PML-N activists did not feel happy over PPP’s success while “we feel happy when PML-N wins”. He was sure Maulana Fazl would play an impartial and serious role to strengthen the PDM.

‘Yousuf Raza Gilani’s victory has shaken up Imran Khan and countdown to his ouster has begun’

Bilawal criticised the PTI government and said that they had made big and hollow claims before coming to power including the “lollypop” of 10 million jobs, five million new homes and solving all problems in 100 days. “But due to incompetence of this government, it was failing in every sector,” he said.

He said that his party had opposed the “PTIMF” since day one. Pakistan was losing its sovereignty to “PTIMF” today, which had made a serious “attack” on State Bank of Pakistan in the form of an ordinance that preferred independence of SBP over the independence of the state.

He said that the situation was surprising since despite being rich in resources, Pakistan was not able to compete even with war-torn Afghanistan, which had better growth rate and lower inflation currently. The situation the country was facing today had never happened in past, he said.

Today, he said, every Pakistani was indebted with Rs175,000 each. People were facing historical inflation and unemployment and poverty was increasing but the government had no solution to these problems.

Talking about multiple failures of the “puppet” government in foreign policy, Bilawal said that Pakistan was not even invited to a conference on environment by the United States. Plans like CPEC had also been put on the backburner.

He said that there had never been such a confused prime minister on the issue of Kashmir in the history of Pakistan like Imran Khan. “When India makes a historic attack on Kashmir, trying to turn Muslims into a minority, the selected prime minister says what should I do,” he said.

He said that besides being the prime minister, Imran Khan was also minister of commerce. “Commerce Minister Imran Khan says our trade with India should be restored. But the following day in federal cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Imran Khan says how can we restore trade with India.

“What a confused foreign policy that one hand does not know what the other hand is doing. We don’t want this kind of confusion and matters should be brought to parliament for clarity.”

He said that a prime minister had been imposed on the country who did not have capacity to run economy and this country.

Former Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, PPP Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and other party leaders were also present at the press conference.

Earlier, Bilawal reached Jilani House and offered condolences to Syed Qaim Ali Shah on the death of his son and daughter.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2021