PPP Chairman Bilalwal Bhutto Zardari. PHOTO: EXPRESS
HYDERABAD: In a bid to preempt any political damage from the PTI’s public mobilisation activities in Sindh, the PPP seems to have started fanning out caution to its rural electoral base.
Speaking at a public meeting in district Dadu on Saturday, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari picked holes in PTI chief Imran Khan's political strategy for Sindh. He was flanked by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, provincial ministers Syed Nasir Shah, Nisar Khuhro and other leaders.
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"Friends, you know that these days [Imran] Khan Sahib is making rounds of Sindh. He says he was busy earlier due to which he couldn't spare time for Sindh. But, now he is free and can give his time to Sindh," he said.
Warning the people of “PTI's politics of allegations, lies and propaganda”, he said, "They talk about change but under their nose corruption is happening in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Recently, the PTI and the Jamaat-e-Islami did muk muka [political compromise] over the Bank of Khyber scandal."
He asked why the K-P’s accountability commission did not nab the officials involved in that scam.
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Bilawal compared PPP's two chief ministers of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Syed Murad Ali Shah, with PTI’s K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, claiming that none of them faced corruption charges like Khattak did.
Referring to some politicians in Sindh who recently joined the PTI, Bilawal slated Khan for “trying to dupe” Sindh's people. "People will not fall in that trap. The people of Sindh are politically conscious. They understand politics and political machinations," he cautioned.
Blaming the PML-N and the PTI for what he said attempting to entrench the right wing politics in the country, the PPP chairman called both the parties extremists and said, “Together, they have destroyed politics."
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He said the two parties had declared the NA-120 bye-election a referendum. "These two parties remember referendum a lot because both were reared in the laps of dictators like Gen Zia-ul-Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf."
Dubbing the PML-N as Nakaam or failed league, he argued that they failed to develop the country and end poverty despite making tall claims.
Bilawal said that 50 million people in Pakistan “still live below the poverty line”, adding that the country's exports were falling and imports were rising while the incumbent federal government had obtained record foreign debts.
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He urged the people to vote his party back to power in 2018 general elections. He said his party was preparing a manifesto for the next elections, assuring that many policies were being created for the agriculture sector, including pre-harvest price fixing, subsidising inputs, easy loans for farmers and farmer card for those owning less than 20 acres of land.
"We are a progressive party. I want to make Pakistan a social democratic country, end poverty and unemployment, provide equal rights to minorities and give women their due place [in society]," he claimed.
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The PPP chairman also assured that one of the biggest fresh water lakes of Asia, Manchhar Lake in district Jamshoro, would be restored, blaming Gen Musharraf for polluting the lake due to the “ill-planned” Right Bank Outfall Drain project.
The Sindh chief minister, provincial ministers and other leaders also spoke on the occasion.
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