Critical time: Pakistan diplomatically isolated, says Bilawal

Asserts PML-N and PTI are without manifestos

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said that the US president’s threatening tone suggests “we have been isolated diplomatically”.

“Pakistan is passing through a critical juncture and we have been facing allegations of harbouring terrorists... and this time these allegations are accompanied by threats,” said Bilawal while speaking at a rally here on Saturday.

Discussing the internal politics, he said that the PML-N and the PTI were without manifestos. “Their leaders are playing politics for their own vested interests and their desire for power.”

Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, he said, were two sides of the same coin. “Both are incapable and both are failures. Both of them represent the right wing,” he added.

He alleged that claims of change made by Khan were pure fabrications.

“People are dying of dengue fever in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Khan is holding rallies in Sukkur. Earlier, he used to fear terrorists, now he is also afraid of mosquitoes. He escapes somewhere in the mountains whenever the people in KP need him,” he said.



Rubbishing Sharif’s claims of development, the young PPP leader said that he had been disqualified by the Supreme Court and his governance was an utter failure.

“Sharif’s claims of development are untrue because the country has to bear the burden of unprecedented loans. Poverty and unemployment are also on the rise,” he said.

Bilawal advised the people not to lose hope “now that I am at the helms of affairs of the PPP... the only party that served the country and rendered sacrifices whenever needed”. He added Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had made the county a nuclear power.

Pledging to eliminate poverty and illiteracy from the country, he said: “I believe in people’s power. If you support me, I will never disappoint you. We shall build a society of equals.”

Dismissing allegations of giving away government jobs to people, he said he was not ashamed of this crime. “I promise I will commit this crime again if I come to power. I want to make this country a social democratic republic. I want the state to treat people like a mother,” he said.

Bilawal said some elements tried to limit the PPP, but “it is in the hearts of the people living between Punjab and Bolan”. He claimed that farmers and women had always supported the PPP.



Every country, he said, had a foreign policy but the PML-N government did not have one. “You need to tell the world your narrative, but our foreign minister addresses a rally at the GT Road and keeps asking why his leader was ousted,” he quipped.

The PPP chairman said that the National Action Plan was not being fully implemented. “Terrorism cannot be eradicated with just [military] operations. The entire nation needs to get united for this war to be won.”

He stressed the need for stopping the outlawed organisations from assuming new names, adding that such organisations had been able to even win parliamentary seats in connivance with the ruling elite. “This is not hidden from the world,” he said.

Bilawal said the PPP not only challenged all terrorists, but also bravely responded to the US threats.

“We suspended the Nato supply line and for the first time in the country’s history, the US apologised to Pakistan. We have never bowed before any dictator. We have never feared any terrorist. The United States is threatening Pakistan. No one in the world believes us now. Who is responsible for this?”