LAHORE: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday unveiled a white paper titled Tabdeli Nahi, Tabahi (destruction, not change) highlighting alleged irregularities and financial scams and crises of the incumbent government.

It also shows ‘realities’ about the use of the accountability process against the opposition members.

PPP’s Central Information Secretary Shazia Marri, along with former National Assembly deputy speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, unveiled the document containing details about flour crisis, sugar scandal, Rawalpindi Ring Road case, Peshawar BRT project, Billion Tree Tsunami and exorbitant increase in medicines’ prices.

Punjab Information Secretary Shahzad Saeed Cheema, Samina Khalid Ghurki, Aslam Gill and Ahsan Rizvi were also present.

Ms Marri said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had caused losses worth billions of rupees in gas and petroleum sectors, while the country had become the fourth most expensive state in the world. She criticised the government for its failure to control inflation, saying that the last three years were full of disaster instead of a so-called change.

She said inflation had touched 11.75 per cent in the country and all the essential items had gone out of the reach of the common man. She added that after coming into power, the PTI government fired thousands of people from their jobs as more than 6.6 million people were currently unemployed in Pakistan.

Ms Marri said the condition of the health sector in the country was the worst and the health card being given to the people these days was nothing but a drama to play with poor people’s sentiments. She lamented that the present government had allowed over 500pc increase in the prices of medicines.

She alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan had organised events in the name of Shaukat Khanum hospital in foreign countries but collected bank cheques from donors in the name of his political party, PTI. According to her, the PTI could provide details of only 12 out of 77 controversial accounts of foreign funding to the Election Commission.

Mr Kundi chided the PTI for demanding the ECP to collectively open the accounts of all the political parties. “It is like the concept of collective weddings.”

Responding to a query, he said an in-house change was the only solution to the anarchy in the country and added that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had been pointing out from day one that resignations from assemblies would not work and only an in-house change would be a viable option to get rid of the ‘incompetent’ PTI government.

“Bilawal Bhutto can manage a successful no-confidence move if the joint opposition assigns him this target,” he said.

He told a questioner that Bilawal Bhutto would preside over a meeting of the central executive committee of the party on the birth anniversary of party’s founder chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on Wednesday (today) at Bilawal House, Lahore. Members of the federal council and political leadership of the province would attend the meeting, he added.

Ms Marri paid tributes to former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, saying he was martyred for his bold stance. “He was a brave person who stood bravely knowing the fact that he was having a dangerous stance,” she added.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2022