LAHORE: PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday said if old politicians continued to fight using old methods, they would not be able to find solutions to the country’s problems.

“I want to bury traditional politics and take the country in a new direction,” said the former foreign minister speaking at a gathering in connection with the golden jubilee celebration of the 1973 Constitution by the Lahore High Court Bar Association.

He said this was his third opportunity to participate in a ceremony of the high court bar.

He said his two generations had been visiting the Lahore High Court to seek justice. “The LHC is still seen as a ‘crime scene’.”

Bilawal expressed his gratitude to Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa hoping that justice will be served to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He also hoped for justice for the people of the country and the workers of the PPP.

“It is time to correct history and politics,” he asserted, referring to the Supreme Court’s hearing on a presidential reference against ‘judicial murder’ of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He wished the golden jubilee of the Constitution should be celebrated with pride.

Without naming former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, the PPP chairperson said some wanted to become “emirul momineen” (commander of the faithful) and some wanted to run the country through a tiger force.

He advised politicians not to turn political differences into personal enmity. He asserted that PPP demonstrated with limited resources and hard work that they were no less than anyone else.

The former foreign minister regretted that the country still faced the politics of revenge and division brought back by the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. He suggested that PTI should reconsider its approach.

He emphasised that no prime minister could lead the country out of economic woes unless old politics was shun.

A group of lawyers disrupted the function by chanting slogans in favour PTI founder Imran Khan.

Bilawal took no offence to the slogans saying it was democracy.

He pointed out that Imran Khan used to say he wouldn’t talk to ‘thieves’.

“Now, your own president is saying that dialogue should take place,” he reminded the PTI lawyers and maintained that progress cannot be achieved through undermining each other’s roles.

The PPP chairperson said he cannot forcibly make people chant slogans in favour of Bhutto, but political workers should be respected and honoured.

Bilawal said he had great respect for political workers irrespective of their party affiliations.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2023