KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will hold rallies across the country on Sunday to express solidarity with the party chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari over his response to his Indian counterpart Jaishankar during the briefing in the United Nations.

The ruling party has also appealed the other political organisations to participate in the rallies to express full solidarity with the country’s stance because this was not a political issue, but a matter of honour of the entire nation.

This was announced in a joint press conference of Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Shazia Atta Marri and Sindh Minister for Irrigation and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon on Saturday.

Ms Marri said the Indian Foreign Minister, Jaishankar made a futile and irresponsible statement against Pakistan, on which country’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari gave a strong and bold befitting response. She said that Pakistan wants good bilateral relations with all South Asian countries and the PPP has always supported better ties with neighbouring nations, but the Indian government was only prompting hatred among the people.

Sindh minister Mr Memon said that the PPP chairman and Foreign Minister Mr Bhutto-Zardari responded to his Indian counterpart in a bold manner and the entire India was taken aback by Bilawal’s response. He said that trains were set on fire at the behest of Narendra Modi in India and footprints of Indian terrorism were also found in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2022