‘Anti-people policies’: Bilawal Bhutto fires a broadside at PML-N government

Says govt is wasting public funds on mega projects

LAHORE:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said the PML-N government is wasting public money on megaprojects while the basic needs of citizens remain unfulfilled.

“Instead of spending funds on charitable projects, the government is running after colourful buses,” he said on Sunday while taking a jibe at the metro bus services started in Lahore and Rawalpindi.



The PPP leader was speaking at a mass wedding ceremony of 50 couples organised by the Ameer Begum Welfare Trust in Bahria Town Lahore.



Bilawal alleged that the ruling party was wasting national resources. “Projects worth billions of rupees like Daanish schools and Sasti Roti did not benefit the people,” he claimed. “Instead the friends of the rulers made money out of these projects.”



He added that the government should launch projects to end unemployment. “Food, shelter, clothing, health and education are basic needs,” he said, urging the federal government to spend more on providing basic amenities to the poor rather than spending lavishly.

The PPP chief said the ruling party had imposed new taxes worth Rs40 billion on poor people without parliament’s approval. This has increased the rate of inflation and unemployment in the country, he claimed.

He accused the government of putting its own name on the projects initiated by the PPP. “The PML-N is renaming the projects initiated by the PPP and re-launching them with its own name painted on them,” he said.



Also criticising the prime minister’s Rs341-billion Kisaan Package, Bilawal said the poor farmers were neglected by the government and nothing was being done to give them relief.

He claimed that during the PPP’s government, wheat was exported to other countries. “Today wheat is being imported from Ukraine which is a great injustice with the local farmers,” he said, claiming even tomatoes and potatoes were being imported from a neighbouring country.

Addressing the newlywed couples, Bilawal congratulated them and wished them luck for the future. He also praised the role played by welfare trusts in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2016.