Bilawal calls for accountability of ‘real power wielders’

ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari sees the ‘imbalance of power’ between the elected representatives of the people and the unelected but powerful organs of the state as a great challenge to democracy.

Senator Farhatullah Babar quoted Bilawal as saying this on Sunday while addressing PPP supporters and office-bearers from Peshawar, Mardan, Bannu and Karak divisions on the third day of his ‘Meet the Workers’ programme at the Zardari House in Islamabad.

Bilawal said the PPP manifesto clearly stated that power belonged to the people and the people alone, adding that all other institutions of the state were subservient to the will of the people. “However, we have witnessed over the past decades that unelected elements have systematically encroached upon state powers.



“What is worse is that while the elected representatives have been held responsible for all the ills and misfortunes on one pretext or the other, the real wielders of state power have not been held accountable even for the worst crimes committed against the state and society,” he added.

“Wielding real state power without accountability by some while holding powerless elected people responsible for the nation’s multiple failures is a crisis of our democracy that must be addressed.”

The PPP chief said this was a challenge for all democratic forces of the country. However, the PPP as the party of anti-status quo has a greater responsibility and must take the lead in correcting this imbalance, he added.

“The PPP can take the lead only when the workers are united and committed, and that is why I ask you to forge unity in your ranks.”

Bilawal said his party had always borne the brunt of the establishment, the unelected elements, the forces of status quo and those who refuse to bow before the verdict of the people.

He said PPP founder chairman and Pakistan’s first directly-elected premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a victim of judicial murder. The second chairperson and Muslim world’s first elected female prime minister Benazir Bhutto was dubbed a ‘security risk’ and chased and hounded all her life, he added.

“The Sindhi premiers were treated differently as opposed to the non-PPP and non-Sindhi prime ministers. Countless workers of the party have been executed, lashed, jailed and sent into exile for raising their voice for democracy and people’s rights.”

The party chairman said that soon he would visit every part of the country to mobilise the workers.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2016.