PPP chief says PPP hasn’t changed, still voice of the poor
KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Saturday his party would show to the world by 2018 that it is still very much alive.
“We will show before the 2018 elections that PPP is alive and far much better than before,” he said in a rare public appearance at Bilawal House on the party’s 47th Foundation Day.
He denied the PPP has changed, saying that the party could never change as it connects people. He predicted that the PPP would not only remain alive until 2018 elections but prove itself as the best party of the country.
Bilawal said Pakistan is not property of any “mullah” or a “player”. He also lashed out at the government, saying that life of common man has become harder as a “storm of inflation and high price” in the country has crossed all limits.
The PPP leader also vowed to resist a privatisation drive planned by the government. “We are against privatisation hundred percent… and we will not let it happen,” he said.
“This is not privatisation but this is personalisation,” he added, in a reference to alleged nepotism.
In his speech, Bilawal also highlighted the “sacrifices and achievements” of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari, and said that the PPP has always challenged the status quo.
“Our detractors say that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari does not speak the language of common people,” he said in his speech, delivered in Urdu.
“They do not realise that the relationship between me and [party workers] transcends language.”
Bilawal said that his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had secured release of 70,000 Pakistan Army troops from Indian jails. He said the status quo at that time hanged Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had given Pakistan its constitution, nuclear programme and true democracy.
The PPP leader said his father, former president Asif Ali Zardari, had given the country 18th Amendment “which makes provinces stronger”, adding that Zardari had also given all his legal powers to parliament to make it centre of power.
He said that it was due to Zardari’s wisdom that the national flag waved in Swat valley again while the Benazir Income Support Programme helped the poor in the country.
Later, Bilawal raised party slogans along with PPP workers and joined his sister Bakhtawar Bhutto and Faryal Talpur to cut a cake and mark the party’s Foundation Day.
Former ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman, Senator Raza Rabbani and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah were also present.
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